
“because it seemed too simple to accept that life was an act of faith.”
Source: Veronika Decides to Die
Source: She's Come Undone
“because it seemed too simple to accept that life was an act of faith.”
Source: Veronika Decides to Die
“Marriage, sanctified by the bond of fidelity, is the nearest life gets to a work of art.”
Source: From Optimism to Hope (2004), p. 69
“It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life.”
Remark to Thomas Creevey (18 June 1815), using the word nice in an older sense of "uncertain, delicately balanced", about the Battle of Waterloo. Creevy, a civilian, got a public interview with Wellington at headquarters, and quoted the remark in his book Creevey Papers (1903), in Ch. X, on p. 236; the phrase "a damned nice thing" has sometimes been paraphrased as "a damn close-run thing."
Context: It has been a damned serious business... Blucher and I have lost 30,000 men. It has been a damned nice thing — the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life. … By God! I don't think it would have been done if I had not been there.
Song lyrics, Oh Mercy (1989), Political World
1980s, First term of office (1981–1985), First Inaugural address (1981)
Context: To a few of us here today this is a solemn and most momentous occasion, and yet in the history of our nation it is a commonplace occurrence. The orderly transfer of authority as called for in the Constitution routinely takes place, as it has for almost two centuries, and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. In the eyes of many in the world, this every-four-year ceremony we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle.
Lenny Brucehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5241370.stm