H.W. Charles Quotes

I am quite conscious that my speculations run beyond the bounds of true science....It is a mere rag of an hypothesis with as many flaw[s] & holes as sound parts.

Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist.

On your life, underestimating the proclivities of finches is likely to lead to great internal hemorrhaging.

In regard to the amount of difference between the races, we must make some allowance for our nice powers of discrimination gained by a long habit of observing ourselves.

I feel like an old warhorse at the sound of a trumpet when I read about the capturing of rare beetles.

The man that created the theory of evolution by natural selection was thrown out by his Dad because he wanted him to be a doctor. GAWD, parents haven't changed much.

If man had not been his own classifier, he would never have thought of founding a separate order for his own reception.

I am a firm believer, that without speculation there is no good and original observation.

We fancied even that the bushes smelt unpleasantly.

The cemetery is filled with indispensable men.

It's impossible in normal times to rally a nation that has 265 kinds of cheese.

My dear and old country, here we are once again together faced with a heavy trial.

One can unite the French only under the threat of danger. One cannot simply bring together a nation that produces 265 kinds of cheese.

They really are bad shots.

Compromise is necessary so long as you never give up who you are. That isn't compromise; that's spiritual death. You have to remain true to yourself.

There was too much going on here -- too much that strayed from odd all the way over into seriously weird.

By enlarging your knowledge of things, you will find your knowledge of self is enlarged.

What we take from the spirit world is only a reflection of what lies inside ourselves.

The moon likes secrets," Meran said. "And secret things. She lets mysteries bleed into her shadows and leaves us to ask whether they originated from otherworlds, or from our own imaginations.

It's good to have mysteries. It reminds us that there's more to the world than just making do and having a bit of fun.

In the dark attics of our minds, all times mingle.

You can take the woman outta the trash, but you can't take the trash out a the woman.

There is no plan, no future laid out for any of us beyond what we make for ourselves.

Even, she thought, even without the gift of witchsight, there was more beauty to be found in the world than could ever be snared in language or music. And with the sight.

[She] had felt straight away that she wasn’t meeting a new friend, but recognizing an old one.

You've got to spread out as far as you can, cut down a whole forest, irrigate a whole desert, just to make sure that you won't accidentally stumble upon a place that's still in its natural state.

The real trouble comes from not knowing what we really want in the first place.

I've always known and been interested in people who are a little bit off the norm. I like to call attention to the idea that they are there, that they are real people, not invisible.

All my life I've wanted to be the kid who gets to cross over into the magical kingdom.

Lies were like having a pregnant rabbit. One day you had one, but before you knew it, there were rabbits all over the place.

Ghosts were just a way that some stupid people dealt with their dull lives.

Well, you know this world isn't perfect.' 'No, you're wrong. This world IS perfect, people just come along and mess it up sometimes.

I don't know what's waiting for us when we die--something better, something worse. I only know I'm not ready to find out yet.

Wisdom never comes to those who believe they have nothing left to learn.

Let it go on record that any confusion arose simply because we lacked certain commonalities of reference.

Sculptors, poets, painters, musicians-they're the traditional purveyors of Beauty. But it can as easily be created by a gardener, a farmer, a plumber, a careworker.

Dying doesn't end anything - it just changes where you are

It is important to know what a person was. But it's more important to know what they are now.

Every time we fix something that broken, whether it's a car engine or a broken heart, that an act of magic. And what makes it magic is that we choose to create or help, just as we can choose to harm.

It reminded me of that tongue-in-cheek quick history of art I'd overheard...Used to be people couldn't draw very well, then they could, and now they can't again.

I've always believed the lies we use to make our fictions reveal the truth with far more honesty than any history or herstory or life story.

Don't start brooding about that, too," she says. "Everybody's got a piece of stranger inside them. It's what lets us surprise ourselves and keeps things interesting." -Lupita

It's not something you can prove....I know you hate to hear this, but you either have it, or you don't.

To me there's no difference between writing YA and adult except that in YA I make the book a little shorter and the protagonists are teens. The difference is in the readers.

The excitement I get from writing is finding out each day what happens next.

I find the characters in my head and the more I write about them, the better I get to know them.

A body of work may be reviled - mostly by those who have no knowledge of its workings - and yet still carry elements of what can only be considered eternal truths.

My characters seem real because they are drawn from the realities of my life. I didn't have to research their pain; I just tapped into my own.

You walk around with a negative attitude and you're just naturally going to bring trouble and hard times down on yourself.

Gina always believed there was magic in the world. "But it doesn't work in the way it does in fairy tales," she told me. "It doesn't save us. We have to save ourselves.