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Several fireboat men were trying to board the burning ferry. They had no apparent reason to do so, for all the passengers were either dead or saved and the firemen could not hope to extinguish the flames simply by being closer to them. Why then were they working their way hand over hand on an alternately slack and taut rope that had started to burn, and dipped them now and then into the freezing river as the crowd took in its breath all at once? Peter Lake knew. They took power from the fire. The closer they fought it, the stronger they became. The firemen knew that though it sometimes killed them, the fire gave them priceless gifts. By Mark Helprin Ferry Fireboat Men Board Burning

Music was a chain forged half of silences and half of sound, love was nothing without longing and loss, and were time not to have at its end the absence of time, and the absence of time not to have been preceded by time, neither would be of any consequence. By Mark Helprin Time Absence Half Music Sound

Not surprisingly, he began to sing, and because no one in the world could hear him, and he sang without inhibition, he sang well. By Mark Helprin Sang Surprisingly Sing Inhibition Began

To see the beauty of the world is to put your hands on lines that run uninterrupted through life and through death. Touching them is an act of hope, for perhaps someone on the other side, if there is another side, is touching them, too. By Mark Helprin Death Side Beauty World Put

If all the months and all their days could be like June weather in New York, there would be paradise on earth. Often, in early June, momentous decisions are made, power waxes strong, quick wars are fought, and love affairs are begun and ended. By Mark Helprin York June Earth Months Days

Truth is not anchored to the ground by driven piles. It can float and take to the air; it is light and lovely and delicate. It is feminine as well as masculine. It is often gentle, and sometimes it can even make a fool of itself - but when it does it calls down God (who protects weak creatures), and suddenly its foolishness becomes a blazing, piercing light. By Mark Helprin Truth Piles Anchored Ground Driven

Only certain portions of the line had to undergo carnage in the French style, but knowledge of it was all-pervasive. Everything the 19th River Guard knew came from quiet meetings in the communications trenches, conversations with sleepless, bitter infantrymen who had been transferred up from the fiercer fighting in the south. If some of the River Guard were on the edge, many of the regular infantry had gone over it long before. Especially disturbing to the naval contingent were reports from down below that Italian troops now were shot quite casually for disciplinary reasons, and that the Italian generals, like their French counterparts, were executing men in decimations for crimes they had not committed. Men with families were pulled from the ranks along with equally mystified adolescents and put to death for acts attributed to others whom they had never seen. By Mark Helprin River Guard French Style Allpervasive

I found him. It was easy. The Church always seems to know where its priests are, even when they're traveling. He remembered me. His hair had turned almost all gray, but he still had his kindly, hesitant manner. "I told him the truth, exactly what had happened. "'The child was conceived out of wedlock,' he said, 'but the child's father was supposed to have been killed in the war. If you marry the mother now, you can adopt him. Then we will "discover" that he is not merely your adopted son, but your natural born son. So, he was your son, he is your son, he will be your son, you will have married his mother, you will have returned from the dead,' he said, counting on his fingers. 'What more can you want? Five out of six. I have no more fingers on this hand.' "'I don't want him to suffer illegitimacy,' I said. "'He won't'. "'Why?' "'I'll take care of it.' "'How?' "'I don't know, but I will.' "And he did. By Mark Helprin Son Found Child Church Mother

As they rolled over the marshes before Venice, he fell back in his seat, windburnt and exhausted, and noticed that the bottle of water, but for its slight and elegant blue tint, was the smoothest, clearest, and most transparent thing he had ever seen. All that was reflected in it was sharp, subdued, and calm. The fields outside, beyond the reeds; the reeds themselves, waving green and yellow; the water, shockingly blue in north light, were clarified, compressed, and preserved within the lens. And if bottles of mineral water could pacify the light of mountains, fields, and the sea, to what painful mysteries would the lens of beauty be opaque? Even death, Alessandro thought, would yield to beauty - if not in fact then in explanation - for the likeness of every great question could be found in forms as simple as songs, and there, if not explicable, they were at least perfectly apprehensible. By Mark Helprin Venice Water Clearest Seat Windburnt

I knew it was easier to drill things in than to take them out.''It's like a screw!' Craig-Vyvyan shouted.... 'If you pull off it's head, you never get it out. By Mark Helprin Screw Knew Easier Drill Things

In a thousand years," Alessandro said, "this incident will be remembered. By then, of course, we will have become angels, devils, or a dragon that breathes fire ... but we have given this rock a story that will be passed on.""What good is that?""It isn't to our advantage, if that's what you mean. However, it's pleasurable to cast a line into the future, no matter how tenuously. You never know, the line may be unbroken all the way to the last judgment. By Mark Helprin Alessandro Years Remembered Thousand Incident

They would go about town sighing and talking to themselves. "I love you," they would say to the imagined beloved, though it might have appeared to someone else that they were speaking to a snow shovel or an egg crate. By Mark Helprin Town Sighing Talking Beloved Crate

No one ever said that you would live to see the repercussions of everything you do, or that you have guarantees, or that you are not obliged to wander in the dark, or that everything will be proved to you and neatly verified like something in science. Nothing is: at least nothing that is worthwhile. I didn't bring you up only to move across sure ground. I didn't teach you to think that everything must be within our control or understanding. Did I? For, if I did, I was wrong. I fyou won't take a chance, then the powers you refuse because you cannot explain them, will, as they say, make a monkey out of you. By Mark Helprin Guarantees Dark Science Live Repercussions

Watching the children, he noticed two things especially. A girl of about five, and her sister, who was no more than three, wanted to drink from the pebbled concrete fountain at the playground's edge, but it was too high for either of them, so the five-year-old ... jumped up and, resting her stomach on the edge and grasping the sides, began to drink. But she was neither strong enough nor oblivious enough of the pain to hand on, and she began to slip off backward. At this, the three-year-old ... advanced to her sister and, also grasping the edge of the fountain, placed her forehead against her sister's behind, straining to hold her in place, eyes closed, body trembling, curls spilling from her cap. Her sister drank for a long time, held in position by an act as fine as Harry had ever seen on the battlefields of Europe. Pg 32 By Mark Helprin Sister Edge Watching Children Noticed

These are the things in which I was so helplessly caught up, the waves that took me, what I loved. When light filled my eyes and I was restless and could move, I knew not what all the color was about, but only that I had a passion to see. And now that I am still, I pass on to you my liveliness and my life, for you will be taken, as once I was, and although you must fight beyond your capacity to fight and feel beyond your capacity to feel, remember that it ends in perfect peace, and you will be as still and content as am I, for whom centuries are not even seconds. By Mark Helprin Loved Things Helplessly Caught Waves

Evidently, rigging cables is therapy for the Swiss: or part of their theology. What was it that he used to say? A balanced arc between mountain rows / as servant to his master shows / the power of besieged belief / in something something something, something something something-something to do with ducks, or rainbows. By Mark Helprin Swiss Evidently Rigging Theology Cables

My father ran London Films. He made films like 'The Red Shoes,' 'The Third Man.' And he had had a long career in the film business, which was bifurcated with a career in intelligence. He had to deal with gangsters, and sometimes he would take me with him. Also, I went to school with their children. By Mark Helprin London Films Shoes Man Father

Such a thing as the child left alone to die in the hallway was unknown on the marsh. But here, in the dawn, was mortality itself. In the city were places to fall from which one could never emerge dark dreams and slow death, the death of children, suffering without grace or redemption, ultimate and eternal loss. The memory of the child stayed with him. But that was not to be the end of it, for reality went around in a twisting ring. Even the irredeemable would be redeemed, and there was a balance for everything. There had to be. By Mark Helprin Marsh Thing Left Die Hallway

In a life, or a portion of a life illuminated, there's a fullness and a balance that no theory or abstraction can match. Why do people waste so much time on abstraction? The life that is given to us, that we play out, is something that you cannot any more grasp with systems and ideas than you can tame an elephant with tweezers. By Mark Helprin Life Illuminated Match Abstraction Portion

The thing that strikes you most about being a soldier in a war zone and in action to the small extent that I was, when actually people start shooting, which happened to me a couple of times, everything goes on automatic and there's a feeling of tremendous elevation and even elation. By Mark Helprin Shooting Times Elation Thing Strikes

Quite clearly, Europe had come apart and millions had died not because of the shifting of great historical forces or the accidents of fate or destiny, the several bullets of Sarajevo, colonial competition, or anything else. It was because Orfeo had slipped from his seat in the office of the attorney Giuliani and been carried upon the flood, like a corked bottle full of shit, until he had lodged upon a platform at the Ministry of War, where his feverish hand and only half-innocent imagination had been directing the machinery of nations in homage to the exalted one and the holy blessed sap. By Mark Helprin Europe Sarajevo Destiny Colonial Competition

I wrote a great deal of a novel, 'Winter's Tale,' on the roof of a Brooklyn Heights tenement on Henry Street. I was a technical climber, and now and then I would put down my manuscript and get up to walk along parapets and climb walls and chimneys. By Mark Helprin Winter Tale Street Brooklyn Heights

Shall I show you the half-dozen other rooms in this hospital where these scenes are repeated? And what of the other hospitals? Printing House Square is small and tame. Even in the private institutions uptown you can see a show just like this: there is nothing as disgusting as an obese cadaver in which all the futile pleasures of many years finally arise to fill it full-blown with stinking rotten gases. The city is burning and under siege. And we are in a war in which everyone is killed and no one is remembered.""What am I supposed to do, then," Peter Lake asked, "if it's like you say?""Is there someone you love?""Yes.""A woman?""Yes.""Then go home to her.""And who will remember her?""No one. That's just the point. You must take care of all that now. By Mark Helprin Yes Repeated Halfdozen Rooms Scenes

I returned to the university only after the Second World War, and, even then, not having been in the resistance, I had political difficulties." "Why weren't you in the resistance?" "I was tired. And you have to have a certain temperament. You have to be fixed on the point. You need what politicians have, which is the absence of a sense of mortality. It comes, like a drug, from adoration and deference. Revolutionaries get it from dreams. They say that nothing is apolitical, that politics, the bedrock of life, is something from which you cannot depart. I say, fuck them. By Mark Helprin War World Resistance Difficulties Returned

Reason excludes faith," Alessandro responded, watching the blood-red mite as it made a dash for the rim. "It's deliberately limited. It won't function with the materials of religion. You can come close to proving the existence of God by reason, but you can't do it absolutely. That's because you can't do anything absolutely by reason. That's because reason depends on postulates. Postulates defy proof and yet they are essential to reason. God is a postulate. I don't think God is interested in the verification of His existence, and, therefore, neither am I. Anyway, I have professional reasons to believe. Nature and art pivot faithfully around God. Even dogs know that. By Mark Helprin Alessandro God Reason Faith Responded

And they'll vote for me because I'm the best liar, because I do it honestly, with a certain finesse. They know that lies and truth are very close, and that something beautiful rests between. By Mark Helprin Liar Honestly Finesse Vote Close

Mortality is like the cold. It cannot be altered by human conceit or solidarity, and at the end you will be on your knees, in shock and amazement, and then you'll have only one sword, one shield, one great thing to carry you through." Alessandro waited to hear what that was, but his father would not say. "If you don't discover it yourself, it will be nothing more than an exhortation from me. By Mark Helprin Mortality Cold Solidarity Knees Amazement

That is, " Harry said, " because the world has never seen - in initiative, imagination, courage, and steadfastness - anything like the American fighting man. Not the Germans, the non-Germans, the semi-German Viennese, the British, the Scots, the Welsh, the Cornish, the Danish, or the Nepalese. You may in the future condemn us for it. You may continue to think that we are savage, disproportionate, and uncivilized. But we saved you the last time. And it is we, I guarantee you, will will liberate Paris and drive into Berlin. We don't like it. We don't like fighting and dying. But ... when it comes time for that, we are facile princeps, and will always be. We were born for it. The terrain of the New World educated us in it. That in America every man is a king assures us of it. By Mark Helprin Harry American Imagination Courage Initiative

She was exquisite, and he feared that he was blinded to everything else, that he was drawn to her by weakness, that his passion for her was incomplete. Know ing all too well the deeply religious love of the Italian poets for women they had merely seen on the street, he feared that his infatuation for Lia could never be compared to the elemental union that can occur between men and women when God is present and light surrounds them. By Mark Helprin Feared Exquisite Weakness Incomplete Blinded

When I got back to Rome I discovered that the Italian army considered me dead - in Gruensee, in the observation post, and on the Cima Bianca. That I was reported killed three times seemed not to affect their trust in the reports except to strengthen it. Being the army, they must have thought that anyone who was killed three times was most certainly deader than if he had been killed only once. By Mark Helprin Gruensee Bianca Rome Italian Cima

When your parents die, Alessandro, you feel that you have betrayed them.""Why?" Luciana asked. "Because you come to love your children more. I lost my mother and father to images in photographs and handwriting on letters, and as I abandoned them for you, the saddest thing was that they made no protest."Even now that I'm going back to them, I regret above all that I must leave you.""You're not going back to anybody," Alessandro told him. "We'll solve those problems later.""Alessandro," his father said, almost cheerfully. "You don't understand. This kind of problem is very special: it has no solution. By Mark Helprin Alessandro Die Them Parents Feel

I knew even before I had desire that it would be gnarled and knotted, black and hard, a tree that would never bear fruit, a fish that would never jump, a cat that would never meow. All my life, bitterness and regret, bitterness, and regret. "And yet," he said, briefly closing his eyes, "I was able to imagine the softness and sweetness of love, for a time." He rested his head upon his right hand, in a gesture worthy of a classical actor, and everyone in the Teatro Barbarossa heard his breathing. By Mark Helprin Regret Knotted Black Hard Fruit

In an interview, I lose control even of what I am, for it is the interviewer who edits me, finally, into what he thinks I am, and never have I been happy with someone else's version of my life after that person has spent an entire two or three hours fathoming it. By Mark Helprin Finally Interview Lose Control Interviewer

Humanity requires for its understanding and governance not science but art, By Mark Helprin Humanity Art Requires Understanding Governance

Mr. de Pinto, the dog who protects sheep quickly learns how to direct them, and it becomes a habit. The people have been trained by their 'watchmen' to jump, and to trample what the 'watchmen' want trampled.I have found, that those who would guard the people are their governors. The government admits that it is a government. The press pretends that it is not. But what a pretense! You orchestrate entire populations. And who elected you? No one. You are self-appointed, you speak for no one, and therefore you have no right to question me as if you represent the common good. By Mark Helprin Pinto Watchmen Habit People Dog

an old man with a cane may discover that his many years have added nothing to his innocence but proof and explanation, and that, as much as he may have learned in his long life, he cannot see as far as he could see when he was seven By Mark Helprin Explanation Life Man Cane Discover

You can't expect anyone to trust revelation if he hasn't experienced it himself. Those who haven't only know reason. And since revelation is a thing apart, and cannot be accounted for reasonably, they never will believe you. This is the great division of the world and always has been. When reason and revelation run together, why, then you have something great, a great age. By Mark Helprin Revelation Great Expect Trust Experienced

He could not have loved Virginia Gamely more, and he wondered if what he assumed lay at such great distance were present in this very city -or even in Virginia herself, if the future were to be fair and imaginative enough to take refuge in a single soul. By Mark Helprin Virginia Gamely City Soul Loved

Guariglia went to his children, who were playing by the brazier. "Look at them," he said. "I know they may not be as beautiful to you as they are to me ... ""They are," Alessandro interrupted. "No," Guariglia insisted, "they're not beautiful in that way, but to me, Alessandro, they are all that is good and holy. I didn't know God until I saw them. It's funny, as soon as you lose faith, you have children, and life reawakens. By Mark Helprin Alessandro Guariglia Brazier Playing Children

He had known in times of the greatest misery or danger that his dreams of home, in which all things seemed beautiful, were in essence his longing for the woman for whom he had been made. That was how, as a soldier, he had seen it, and it was how he had come through. By Mark Helprin Home Beautiful Made Times Greatest

Their powerlessness, innocence, and imagination fused to enable them to turn time inside out, travel on the wind, and enter the souls of animals. By Mark Helprin Innocence Powerlessness Travel Wind Animals

Winter then in its early and clear stages, was a purifying engine that ran unhindered over city and country, alerting the stars to sparkle violently and shower their silver light into the arms of bare upreaching trees. It was a mad and beautiful thing that scoured raw the souls of animals and man, driving them before it until they loved to run. And what it did to Northern forests can hardly be described, considering that it iced the branches of the sycamores on Chrystie Street and swept them back and forth until they rang like ranks of bells. By Mark Helprin Winter Stages Country Alerting Trees

When I was in school," Strassnitzky said, "I went out one morning in my riding clothes and shod in heavy boots, and as I left the last step I came down on a young bird that had been resting at the foot of the stairs, having been savaged by a hawk. My weight on it pushed the air out of its lungs, and when I turned to see what had made that unearthly noise, the bird looked at me in such a way that I knew that even animals have souls. Only a creature with a soul could have had eyes so expressive and so understanding, and I had crushed it as it lay dying. It took a full day to die, and since then I have been what is called a pacifist. The term is inexact and demeaning, for a pacifist has no peace in his soul, and he knows rage as much as anyone else, but he simply will not kill. By Mark Helprin Strassnitzky Bird School Boots Stairs

I returned to walking up the mountain, and there, in the dim asexual beauty of reddening dawns and skies that firmed to blue, I discovered my real and appropriate strengths. By Mark Helprin Mountain Blue Strengths Returned Walking

What I did with his automobile was fairly dramatic and somewhat risky, but still a lot easier than finding a parking place on the Upper East Side. By Mark Helprin Side Upper East Risky Automobile

Weeks and months are needed to accustom oneself to climbing. Otherwise, much energy is lost in clinging to the rock, maintaining too sure a hold, trying not to be too stiff, and worrying. After a while a climber warms to the mountains and can accomplish with little effort those things that once took all he had, for height gradually loses its meaning. Standing on the edge of a two-thousand-meter precipice becomes no less comfortable than sitting in a wicker chair on Capri, for it is possible to acquire some of the self-possession that enables mountain goats to stand for hours on a tiny ledge above an abyss. By Mark Helprin Weeks Climbing Months Needed Accustom

Beverly had thought how strange and wonderful it would be if the earth were hurled far from its orbit, into the cold extremes of black space where the sun was a faint cool disc, not even a quarter-moon, and night was everlasting. Imagine the industry, she thought, as every tree, every piece of coal, and every scrap of wood were burned for heat and light. Though the sea would freeze, men would go out in the darkness and pierce it's glassy ice to find the stilled fish. But finally all the animals would be eaten and their hides and wool stitched and woven, all the coal would be burned, and not a tree would be left standing. Silence would rule the earth, for the wind would stop and the sea would be heavy glass. People would die quietly, buried in their furs and down. By Mark Helprin Thought Beverly Orbit Disc Quartermoon

Little men," he once said, "spend their days in pursuit of such things. I know from experience that at the moment of their deaths they see their lives shattered before them like glass. I've seen them die. They fall away as if they have been pushed, and the expressions on their faces are those of the most unbelieving surprise. Not so, the man who knows the virtues and lives by them. The world goes this way and that. Ideas are in fashion or not, and those who should prevail are often defeated. But it doesn't matter. The virtues remain uncorrupted and uncorruptible. They are rewards in themselves, the bulwarks with which we can protect our vision of beauty, and the strengths by which we may stand, unperturbed, in the storm that comes when seeking God. By Mark Helprin Men Spend Things Days Pursuit

In American military cemeteries all over the world, seemingly endless rows of whitened grave markers stand largely unvisited and in silence. The gardeners tend the lawns, one section at a time. Even at the famous sites, tourism is inconstant. By Mark Helprin American World Seemingly Silence Military

This marvelous graceful thing, this joy of physics, this perfect balance between rebellion and obedience, is God's own signature on earth. By Mark Helprin God Thing Physics Obedience Earth

You'll be shot," they cautioned. "No. I won't be shot. I'm going to shoot them, and then I'll go home. I'll be perfectly safe. I can see the future, and the clouds are lifting." "You can see the future? How can you see the future?" "I know enough now about the patterns of the past to see the darkness of the future unraveling before the golden light of time. Behind the clouds is the dawn. How can I possibly know such things? The fact is, I do. So watch out. By Mark Helprin Shot Future Cautioned Clouds Home

'Freeing' a literary work into the public domain is less a public benefit than a transfer of wealth from the families of American writers to the executives and stockholders of various businesses who will continue to profit from, for example, 'The Garden Party,' while the descendants of Katherine Mansfield will not. By Mark Helprin Freeing Party Public American Garden

I want nothing more than what I have, for what I have is enough. I'm grateful for it. I foresee no reward, no eternal life. I expect only to leave further pieces of my heart in one place or another, but I love God nonetheless, with every atom of my being, and will love Him until I fall into black oblivion. By Mark Helprin Love God Grateful Reward Life

But the long tunnels of art through which I walked in Rome that day had no ragged edges, cowardly colors, or shades of pastel that didn't know what to do with themselves. The wisdom, perfection, and beauty of the colors and forms I passed were more than enough, in their collectivity, to hint at the principles which govern the hereafter, whatever that may be. Indeed, even a detail of one painting can offer solid direction in this regard if one knows how to look By Mark Helprin Rome Edges Cowardly Colors Long

When finally the sky grew ink-black, the trees were visible only as their swaying branches blotted out the stars that crossed in blazing showers, as sometimes they do. The language of the stars, seldom read and heeded less, told beautifully and in silence of all the victories that had ever been won and all the defeats ever suffered. In uncountable lines of light across the widest sphere, the stars spoke of everything notable even down to a leaf blowing rhythmically in the wind. By Mark Helprin Stars Inkblack Showers Finally Sky

I have jumped out of airplanes but I was not technically a paratrooper. I was an infantryman and a night fighter, anti-terrorist. By Mark Helprin Paratrooper Jumped Airplanes Technically Antiterrorist

I've given myself to you. You may have my body, soul, everything. Time passes, and all I want is the intimacy that slows, defeats. and confounds it. Love, that's what it is. You've always made the mistake that men often make, and carried forward the great fault that mars civilisation, which is that you believe that your philosophy is deeper than love. By Mark Helprin Love Soul Body Time Passes

Some of his colleagues and a few of his students claimed to have been moved so by a book that they had read it again and again. Who were they? Of what were they made? Were they dissembling? Perhaps he was a fool, but he thought that if a work were truly great you would only have to read it once and you would be stolen from yourself, desperately moved, changed forever. It would become part of you and never leave, and you would love the characters as if they were your own. Who would want to plough over ground that has been perfectly ploughed? Would it not be, like living one's life again, infinitely painful and dissonant? By Mark Helprin Colleagues Students Claimed Book Read

How, in good conscience," Alessandro asked, "can you ride across the countryside in perfect safety, as if you were on holiday, stopping mainly to swim and eat oysters, while men are crushed and pulverized in the filth of the trenches?" "Because the object of war is peace, and I have merely thrown out the middle. If everyone did the same, no one would be crushed and pulverized in the filth of the trenches." "Everyone doesn't have the privilege. You do because you're a field marshal in command of a microscopic unit." "I realize that," Strassnitzky answered, "and, given such a rare opportunity, of which most men cannot even dream, I would be unforgivably remiss if I failed to seize it, would I not? I exploit it to the full. By Mark Helprin Alessandro Trenches Pulverized Filth Conscience

I'm not afraid," Rafi said."Why not?""If I die tomorrow it will have been useless to have been afraid today. By Mark Helprin Rafi Said Today Afraid Die

I don't want these. They're mud and they've got no color. Or at least the color is different from what I'm used to. Take any American city, in autumn, or in winter, when the light makes the colors dance and flow, and look at it from a distant hill or from a boat in the bay or on the river, and you will see in any section of the view far better paintings than in this lentil soup that you people have to pedigree in order to love. I may be a thief, but I know color when I see it in the flash of heaven or in the Devil's opposing tricks, and I know mud. Mr. Knoedler, you needn't worry about your paintings anymore. I'm not going to steal them. I don't like them.Sincerely yours, P. Soames By Mark Helprin Color Mud Paintings American Knoedler

Souls, like rays of light, exist in perfect, parallel equality, always. But for when infinitely short a time they pass through the rough and delaying mechanism of life, they separate and disentangle, encountering different obstacles, traveling at different rates, like light refracted by the friction of things in its path. Emerging on the other side, they run together once more, in perfection. For the short and difficult span when confounded by matter and time they are made unequal, they try to bind together as they always were and eventually will be. The impulse to do so is called love. The extend to which they exceed is called justice. And the energy lost in the effort is called sacriface. On the infinite scale of things, this life is to a spark what a spark is to all the time man can imagine, but still, like a sudden rapids or bend in the river, it is that to which the eye of God may be drawn from time to time out of interest in happenstance. By Mark Helprin Time Light Souls Called Exist

But, Catherine, everything's that true despite us - the things they're talking about, natural laws - will always remain true despite us. What matters is what's true because of us. That's what's up for grabs. That's where the battle is. One remembers and values one's life not for its objective truths, but for the emotional truths ... The only thing that's really true, that lasts, and makes life worthwhile is the truth that's fixed in the heart. That's what we live and die for. It comes in epiphanies, and it comes in love, and don't ever let frightened people turn you away from it. By Mark Helprin Catherine True Natural Laws Talking

Truth is no rounder than a horse's eye. By Mark Helprin Truth Eye Rounder Horse

They glanced over at Catherine, who was dancing with Billy, as only fathers and daughters can dance. No matter how old the daughter may be, the father is dancing, in joy unparalleled, with his child when she was little. By Mark Helprin Catherine Billy Dance Dancing Glanced

A young girl, a frailty, simple and true, who had been unable to stand up from the piano and had had to be carried; a girl half his age; a girl who could not shoot a gun, had never been in an oyster house, atop a tower, or under the wharves; a girl hotter always than noon in August; a girl who knew nothing; had thrown him so hard that he would be out of breath forever. By Mark Helprin Girl August Frailty Simple True

It soon got so cold that the men rushed to close the doors. When they had shut them and the room was again silent, they saw that several women had begun to cry. The women said it was because of the numbing air that had washed over their bare shoulders, but even strangers embraced sadly as they coasted into the new year and felt its strength commencing. They cried because of the magic and the contradictions; because time had passed and time was left; because they saw themselves as if they were in a photograph that had winked fast enough to contradict their mortality; because the city around them had conspired to break a hundred thousand hearts; and because they and everyone else had to float upon this sea of troubles, watertight. Sometimes there were islands, and when they found them they held fast, but never could they hold fast enough not to be moved and once again overwhelmed. By Mark Helprin Doors Fast Cold Men Rushed

You know," said Al in a daze of hunger and cold, "when you see this, you realize that despite all the crap that goes on in the cities, despite all the words and accusations, the country has balance and momentum. The whole thing is symmetrical and beautiful; it works. The cities are like bulbs on a Christmas tree. They may bum, swell, and shatter, but the green stays green. Look at it," he said, eyes fixed on the horizon, not unmoved by the motion of the train. "Look at it. It's alive. By Mark Helprin Cold Accusations Momentum Cities Daze

And then one morning the soldiers grew suddenly still as the heavy latches were lifted and turned. Just before the doors slid apart, a man from Pisa took the opportunity to say, "The air is thin. We're in the mountains." Alessandro straightened his back and raised his head. The mountains, unpredictable in their power, were the heart of his recollection, and he knew that the Pisano was right. He had known it all along from the way the train took the many grades, from the metallic thunder of bridges over which they had run in the middle of the night, and from the white sound of streams falling and flowing in velocities that could have been imparted only by awesome mountainsides. By Mark Helprin Turned Morning Soldiers Grew Suddenly

Justice can sleep for years and awaken when it is least expected. A miracle is nothing more than dormant justice from another time arriving to compensate those it has cruelly abandoned. Whoever knows this is willing to suffer, for he knows that nothing is in vain. By Mark Helprin Expected Justice Sleep Years Awaken

For the first time, I had looked upon victory from the place of defeat, and because the victory was not my own, and I was apart from it, I felt it all the more. It was God's victory, the victory of the continuation of the world. It would bring me nothing, swell my fortunes not a bit. It was bitter, and I would always be outside, but never have I felt a deeper pleasure, never have I been more satisfied, for even if hardly anything was left of me, the world was full. And I was not the only one. A thousand men were on the train for seven hours, and in that time I do not believe a single word was spoken. By Mark Helprin Victory Defeat Looked Place Felt

Sometimes love is taken away unjustly, but not until the very end do you stop believing and then it is very bitter. It is bitter because somewhere within you the perfect standard still lives, the pure expectation against which failure and betrayal are contrasted like the dark shadows on a moonlit road. By Mark Helprin Unjustly Bitter Love End Stop

They always say about the soldier that he's detached. That's true, for he's been in the eye of the storm, his heart has been broken, and he doesn't even know it. By Mark Helprin Detached Soldier True Storm Broken

Who said that justice is what you imagine? Can you be sure that you know it when you see it, that you will live long enough to recognize the decisive thunder of its occurrence, that it can be manifest within a generation, within ten generations, within the entire span of human existence? What you are talking about is common sense, not justice. Justice is higher and not as easy to understand - until it presents itself in unmistakable splendor. The design of which I speak is far above our understanding. But we can sometimes feel its presence. By Mark Helprin Justice Imagine Generation Occurrence Existence

To the sight of the swallows dying in mid air, Alessandro was finally able to add his own benediction. "Dear God, I beg of you only one thing. Let me join the ones I love. Carry me to them, unite me with them, let me see them, let me touch them." And then it all ran together, like a song. By Mark Helprin Alessandro Air Benediction Sight Swallows

New technologies will always demand and deserve careful navigation and difficult readjustments. But the weakening or de facto abolition of copyright will not merely roil the seas, it will drain them dry. Those who would pirate what you produce have developed an elaborate sophistry to convince you that they are your victim. They aren't. Fight back. By Mark Helprin Readjustments Technologies Demand Deserve Careful

You'll join me sooner than you know in a place with ... no illusions, where the truth is the only architecture, the only color, the only soundwhere that which we sense merely on occasion, and which takes us up and gives us the rare and beautiful glimpses of the things we truly love, flows in deep rivers and tumbles about like clouds in the sky. By Mark Helprin Join Sooner Place Illusions Architecture

I think it takes some terrible or great event to fuse two people together without inhibition. Without heat or shock, it can't be done. I believe that's why sexual love, which needn't be, is so intensely intertwined with sin. By Mark Helprin Inhibition Terrible Great Event Fuse

As long as you have life and breath, believe. Believe for those who cannot. Believe even if you have stopped believing. Believe for the sake of the dead, for love, to keep your heart beating, believe. Never give up, never despair, let no mystery confound you into the conclusion that mystery cannot be yours. By Mark Helprin Breath Long Life Mystery Believing

Defiance, Catherine, is a gift of God, who is superior to nature. When nature comes to get you, honor God by treating it, as he would, with neither fear nor respect. By Mark Helprin Catherine Defiance God Nature Gift

[When] he's here, he's always reading. He says books stop time. I myself think he's crazy ... Don't tell anyone, but when he reads something that he likes he gets real happy, turns on the music, and dances by himself, or with a broom sometimes. By Mark Helprin Reading Time Books Stop Crazy

You're crazy," Ludovico announced. Alessandro held his finger in the air. "Ah!" he said, "but at least I'm able to tell you my last name, and at least, when they take me out to the stake my dreams may be just beginning, whereas yours, by your own definition, must and will come to a dark end." "You fool yourself. Your illusions will fall away even before the end. They won't do you any good. You'll see. By Mark Helprin Ludovico Crazy Announced End Alessandro

What do they mean to you?" he asked, leaning back into the portable thicket of his gray vested suit. Beverly took back her pages and studied them. After a while, she looked up. "They mean to me that the universe . . . growls, and sings. No, shouts." The learned astronomer was shocked. In dealing with the public he was often confronted by lunatics and visionaries, some of whose theories were elegant, some absurd, and some, perhaps, right on the mark. But those were usually old bearded men who lived in lofts crowded with books and tools, eccentrics who walked around the city, pushing carts full of their belongings, madmen from state institutions that could not hold them. There was always something arresting and true about their thoughts, as if their lunacy were as much a gift as an affliction, though the heavy weight of the truth they sensed so strongly had clouded their reason, and all the wonder in what they said was shattered and disguised. He By Mark Helprin Back Asked Leaning Suit Portable

What, exactly, are you talking about?" "I'm talking about love." "I'm unconvinced." "I wasn't attempting to convince you. I'm now sufficiently tranquil not to have to convince anyone of anything." "Will you be tranquil in front of the firing squad?" "I don't know. We'll see tomorrow. You'll be able to watch from the window." Alessandro winked at Ludovico, to show him that he was undisturbed. "The way you winked," Ludovico said accusingly, "the way you winked at me was just like a religious fanatic." "Sorry," Alessandro said. "I'll try to wink like a Marxist. By Mark Helprin Talking Winked Ludovico Alessandro Convince

Then, just at the peak of complacency, when it was assumed that the climate of the world had changed forever, when the conductor of the philharmonic played Vivaldi's Four Seasons and left out an entire movement, and when to children of a young age stories of winter were told as if they were fairy tales, New York was hit by a cataclysmic freeze, and, once again, people huddled together to talk fearfully of the millennium. By Mark Helprin Vivaldi Seasons York Complacency Forever

I made a boy's mistake, common enough, of thinking that real life was knowing many things and many people, living dangerously in faraway places, crossing the sea, or starting a power company on the Columbia River, a steamship line in Bolivia. By Mark Helprin River Bolivia Columbia Mistake Common

Real power is with those who are forever still, and I want to join them." "Good God. Why?" "Because I love them." "You mean like Hamlet jumping into the grave?" "Yes." "You can't do that!" Arturo screamed. "This is the twentieth century. And, besides, he jumped out." "He climbed out." "All right, he climbed out. Better that your soul should be on fire. It is on fire, and when you give it air it will flare like the sun. Even I ... My soul is on fire.... I, an accountant! By Mark Helprin Fire Real Good God Power

A good river is nature's life work in song. By Mark Helprin Song Good River Nature Life

Papa," Alessandro said, his eyes closing. "She swims nude in the sea. She carries a pistol. And she wears perfume that makes me dizzy. Sometimes I go to the garden gate and smell the handle, because, when she touches it, the perfume stays. By Mark Helprin Alessandro Papa Closing Eyes Perfume

To assert, as some have, that illegal immigrants do not depress wages because they do the jobs Americans refuse is the kind of nonsense economists speak when they strain to be counterintuitive. It is similar to saying that cheap imports do not hold down prices. By Mark Helprin Americans Assert Counterintuitive Illegal Immigrants

She could hear in the traffic a white sound that threw veils across the present and allowed her to hold the scene to her the way that she held her own children - fighting time, conquered by it, ravished by it. For she believed that only through love can one feel the terrible pain of time, and then make it completely still. By Mark Helprin Time Children Fighting Conquered Ravished

Harry looked at Margaret and thought that, should a woman grow old, she might still have her deepest charm. Should a woman grow old, she would still be a woman, the essence of being so being so inerasable as never to vanish. And if men were to understand this as they, too, grew old, the world would be a happier place. By Mark Helprin Woman Margaret Grow Harry Charm

A cat can outrace the best thoroughbred horse if only it can grasp the idea of racing. By Mark Helprin Racing Cat Outrace Thoroughbred Horse

We ate simply, we were healthy, and we were uninterested in those things that should be called possessions not because they are possessed but because they possess. Those ten years were the happiest of my life save the first ten, the years in which I had neither position nor success, and no one took notice of me. Those were the years of the parent holding the child in his arms, lifting him high in the air, and pulling him close. As I held my own son, when he was a baby, God was right there. By Mark Helprin Years Simply Healthy Possess Ate

The classic business story is much like the classic human story. There is rise and fall; the overcoming of great odds, the upholding of principles despite the cost, questions of rivalry and succession, and even the possibility of descent into madness. By Mark Helprin Classic Story Business Human Fall

I have seen lonely people of advancing age, yet as constant as angels, keeping faith to those they loved who fell in wars that current generations, not having known them, cannot even forget. The sight of them moving hesitantly among the tablets and crosses is enough to break your heart. By Mark Helprin Age Angels Keeping Generations Forget

The best thing in the world is the truth. You find it out anyway, in the end, or sooner. By Mark Helprin Truth Thing World End Sooner

My father was famous for his photographic memory. He was in the OSS. They trained him to be captured on purpose and to read upside down and backwards and commit to memory every document in Germany he saw as he was being interrogated - every schedule on every wall. So, that photographic memory somehow made its way to me when I was young. By Mark Helprin Memory Oss Father Famous Photographic

She died on a windy gray day in March when the sky was full of darting crows and the world lay prostrate and defeated after winter. Peter Lake was at her side and it ruined him forever. It broke him as he had not ever imagined he could have been broken. He would never again be young, or able to remember what it was like to be young. What he had once taken to be pleasures would appear to him in his defeat as hideous and deserved punishments for reckless vanity. By Mark Helprin March Winter Young Died Windy

He paused. Perhaps he had a son. He intoned their names, and then he said, "I sentence you to death. The sentence shall be carried out by firing squad, at the customary time, in the execution yard of this prison, one week from today." Then Fabio asked, "Why a week?" as coolly and with as much detachment as a customer in a bank wanting to know why his funds had not cleared. The court president did not object to this unceremonious interruption, for the sentence was severe enough to cover any and all offenses, past, present, future, and imagined. His tone was friendly and somehow reassuring. "We need a little extra time for your friend Grigi." At this, the soldiers of the 19th River Guard, now condemned, began to laugh, and the gavel struck. By Mark Helprin Paused Sentence Week Time Fabio

In the same way that certain sections of the city were mortal battlegrounds, some parts of the calendar were always more warlike than others, and during the days between Christmas and the new year all elements seemed to conspire to subdue the soul. Fire, rain, sickness, cold, and death were everywhere spread through the dark as in a painting of hell. People struggled until exhaustion, giving everything they had, and the days were packed with trials and mysteries. By Mark Helprin Christmas Battlegrounds Soul Days Sections

I used to write exclusively with one particular Montblanc fountain pen, although lately I have had to use a roller-tip fountain pen, because I find it harder and harder to control the fine muscles of my right hand during prolonged periods of work. I buy boxes of Deluxe Uni-ball pens, use them until they start to drag, and then change. By Mark Helprin Fountain Montblanc Pen Harder Work

We are like poor people, who have nothing but each other, and are happy. By Mark Helprin People Happy Poor

And she speculated that the city would be cold, completely of itself, unconscious, that its every move would be transcendent, and that each of its hundred million flashing scenes would strike a moral lesson. Such a city would extend vision, intensify pity, telescope emotion, and float the heart the way the sea is gently buoyant with great ships. To do this it would have to be a cold instrument. And, despite its beauty, it would have to be cruel. By Mark Helprin Unconscious City Completely Transcendent Lesson

You see," the attorney Giuliani said, "not only is there no comfort in unanimity, but they cannot even achieve it." "I could unify them." "That's silly, Alessandro. If they supported you, or even listened, it would be because you flattened yourself and your ideas until everything that once was steep and noble was gone. By Mark Helprin Giuliani Unanimity Attorney Comfort Achieve

I'm a critic. I write essays about works of art. It's like being a eunuch in the seraglio, but unrequited love is the sweetest, and I have the proper distance. I can compress the qualities of beauty I've been trained to see, store them up, and bring them out at will, rapid-fire, in the combinations I want. By Mark Helprin Critic Art Write Essays Works

Lonely people have enthusiasms which cannot always be explained. When something strikes them as funny, the intensity and length of their laughter mirrors the depth of their loneliness, and they are capable of laughing like hyenas. When something touches their emotions, it runs through them like Paul Revere, awakening feelings that gather into great armies. By Mark Helprin Lonely Explained People Enthusiasms Revere

Then occurred a rare thing about which men and women sometimes dream. They carried on a full conversation in complete silence, discerning feelings, plans, exclamations, jokes, opinions, laughter, and dreams- rapidly, silently, inexplicably. By Mark Helprin Plans Exclamations Jokes Opinions Laughter

He could say nothing. He had no right to be there, he had already been profoundly changed, he was no good at small talk, she was half naked, it was dawn and he loved her. By Mark Helprin Changed Talk Naked Profoundly Good

Why do you think great leaders and great orations are coincident with wars, revolutions, and the founding or ending of governments and states? Common interests then are so clear that speeches are effortlessly drawn, but at present neither the facts nor the consequences are sufficiently clear to make oratory legitimate. This is the kind of war that will wind on and make fools of its partisans and opponents both. By Mark Helprin Great Revolutions States Leaders Orations

Adversity has its compensations, that in falling, and in failing, we rise. It is as if there is a hand behind us that sets to right all imbalances. Why do you think the saints seldom had the temporal power that we mistakenly identify with the fruits of justice? Do you think they needed it, or cared? By Mark Helprin Adversity Compensations Falling Failing Rise

Perhaps things are most beautiful when they are not quite real; when you look upon a scene as an outsider, and come to possess it in its entirety and forever; when you live in the present with the lucidity and feeling of memory; when, for want of connection, the world deepens and becomes art. By Mark Helprin Real Outsider Forever Memory Connection

What a place to put a city, right on the front line of absolute zero. No wonder a cow burned it down. By Mark Helprin City Place Put Front Line

Then came the matter of food. For ten hours he picked grains of rice off the floor and collected pasta, sugar, and individual tea leaves. He would not eat anything that had been tainted with blood, and was left with less than a third of his rations. Some things - powdered cocoa, for example - were uncollectible, or had risen on the wind. He had kerosene enough for one pot of boiling water and one hour of lamplight each day. Some of his blankets had bullet holes. By Mark Helprin Food Matter Sugar Pasta Leaves

Now that music is faithfully reproducible, musicians are not needed as once they were. And music itself has changed. Though small cadres of classicists keep the sacred and ineffable alive, they are under siege by coarse generations whose music is hardly as musical as a bus engine or a chain saw. Something must have occurred during their mothers' pregnancies. How else is it possible to explain that playing Bach keeps them away from public spaces the way iron spikes drive pigeons from cathedral ledges? By Mark Helprin Music Reproducible Musicians Faithfully Needed

Perhaps passing through the gates of death is like passing quietly through the gate in a pasture fence. On the other side, you keep walking, without the need to look back. No shock, no drama, just the lifting of a plank or two in a simple wooden gate in a clearing. Neither pain, nor floods of light, nor great voices, but just the silent crossing of a meadow. By Mark Helprin Passing Fence Gate Death Quietly

Better to have a font of money in middle age than when you're young. Middle age is the time when you'll need it and appreciate it." "I'll never appreciate it. I've been trained out of it. I don't want money. I want much more. I want what rarely happens. I want what people are afraid even to imagine." "Like what?" "Resurrection, redemption, love. By Mark Helprin Middle Age Young Font Money

Peter Lake spurred the horse again, and extended his right arm like a lance, pointing it at the motionless officer. As they went by in a blur of white, he lifted the man's cap from his head, saying, "Allow me to take your hat." The enraged policeman pivoted, took out his notebook, and furiously wrote a description of the horse's buttocks. By Mark Helprin Lake Peter Lance Pointing Officer

The obituary writers drew their incomplete sketches, touring through his life like travelers to England who do not ever see swans, sheep, bicycles, and blue eyes. By Mark Helprin Sheep Bicycles England Sketches Touring

If Shakespeare thought comedy worthwhile, that means the rest of us can take a break from tragedy now and then without betraying our calling, even if the modern professional intellectual, a poseur by nature, has yet to discover this. By Mark Helprin Shakespeare Worthwhile Calling Intellectual Nature

The greatest blizzards start with the finest snow. By Mark Helprin Snow Greatest Blizzards Start Finest

The quality of Venice that accomplishes what religion so often cannot is that Venice has made peace with the waters. It is not merely pleasant that the sea flows through, grasping the city like tendrils of vine, and, depending upon the light, making alleys and avenues of emerald and sapphire, Citi s a brave acceptance of dissolution and an unflinching settlement with death. Though in Venice you may sit in courtyards of stone, and your heels may click up marble stairs, you cannot move without riding upon or crossing the waters that someday will carry you in dissolution to the sea. By Mark Helprin Venice Waters Quality Accomplishes Religion

Hoheit, do you know why crows are black?" "No, I never thought of it." "They taste lousy, and they're black as a sure sign to predators that they're crows, who will taste lousy." "Why aren't they yellow?" "They live in cold climates, and black absorbs heat. They don't need camouflage, so they can take advantage of the way their color soaks up the sunlight." "Why do you ask me these questions?" Klodwig demanded. "To remind you, Hoheit, not to argue with nature. By Mark Helprin Hoheit Black Lousy Crows Taste

He wanted actually to live inside the dream that captured his eye, to spend his days and nights in a fume of burnished gold. By Mark Helprin Eye Gold Wanted Live Inside

The craftless anarchy of the Beat poets on the one hand, and the extreme control of Henry James on the other, suggest that for most human beings, just as both freedom and discipline are necessary in life, serendipity and design must coexist in a work to make it readable. By Mark Helprin Beat Henry James Hand Suggest

And even when I was broken the way sometimes one can be broken, and even though I had fallen, I found upon arising that I was stronger than before, that the glories, if I may call them that, which I had loved so much and that had been darkened in my fall, were shinning even brighter and nearly everytime subsequently I have fallen and darkness has come over me, they have obstinately arisen, not as they were, but brighter. By Mark Helprin Broken Fallen Brighter Glories Fall

And then he was suddenly overwhelmed. It was as if a thousand bolts of lightning had converged to lift him. All he could see was blue, electric blue, wet shining warm blue, blue to no end, everywhere, blue that glowed and made him cry out, blue, blue, her eyes were blue. By Mark Helprin Blue Overwhelmed Suddenly Thousand Bolts

And I love you.' she said her heart buoyant. She really did love him, although each time she said it and he could not reply, she loved him perhaps a little less. By Mark Helprin Love Buoyant Heart Reply Time

To be mad is to feel with excruciating intensity the sadness and joy of a time which has not arrived or has already been. And to protect their delicate vision of that other time, madmen will justify their condition with touching loyalty, and surround it with a thousand distractive schemes. These schemes, in turn, drive them deeper and deeper into the darkness and light (which is their mortification and their reward), and confront them with a choice. They may either slacken and fall back, accepting the relief of a rational view and the approval of others, or they may push on, and, by falling, arise. When and if by their unforgivable stubbornness they finally burst through to worlds upon worlds of motionless light, they are no longer called afflicted or insane. They are called saints. By Mark Helprin Time Schemes Mad Feel Excruciating

The last time the Right Honourable Gentleman raised the accusation about the policies of this government forcing his constituents to resort to inedible foods - in that case, as I remember, it was ants, earwigs, and glowworms - the National Health looked very seriously into the matter, and their inspectors. . . ." "Division! Division!" cried out some who had got the scent of blood, and Mallet Scuffs himself, successfully diverted, cried out, "Weevils, too! Weevils and grubs!" "Their inspectors. . . ." "Weevils, too, weevils and grubs! Weevils, too, weevils and grubs!" chanted a Marxist anti-missile faction. By Mark Helprin Weevils Honourable Gentleman National Health

Quite possibly there's nothing as fine as a big freight train starting across country in early summer, Hardesty thought. That's when you learn that the tragedy of plants is that they have roots. By Mark Helprin Hardesty Summer Thought Possibly Fine

All great discoveries," the elder Marratta had once said, "are products as much of doubt as of certainty, and the two in opposition clear the air for marvelous accidents." At By Mark Helprin Marratta Discoveries Certainty Accidents Great

The eighth and ninth floors housed the library. It had several million volumes in open stacks, all the major newspapers and periodicals either bound or on computer, and a map section. Expert librarians maneuvered a seemingly limitless budget to keep it well maintained and up-to-date. The reference collections were wonders of the world. By Mark Helprin Library Eighth Ninth Floors Housed

As he passed people rushing by the scores of thousands on the streets, he saw the glory of their faces. He saw in the way their eyes were setin their reddened cheeks, and in their expressions of hope, determination, or angerwhatever it was that made them more than skeletons and flesh, for the life in their faces far transcended the material into which it had strayed. And yet if he were to grasp for it, all he would have would be the lapels of a coat and a startled and fearful pedestrian inside. Though the light he sought was shining all around, he could not capture it. By Mark Helprin Faces Streets Passed People Rushing

Mrs. Gamely had gotten a letter through, inviting them to visit as soon as they could, and reporting that, in these years just before the millennium Lake of the Coheeries had had had hard wintersyesbut also extraordinary summers which had made the village overflow with natural wealth, "in the agrarian and lexicographical senses of the word. There is so much food, everywhere," her friend had written for her, "and so many new and wonderful words being generated, that the storehouses and closets are overflowing. We are tubflooded with neologisms, smoked fish, and fruit pies. By Mark Helprin Gamely Lake Coheeries Mrs Inviting

They got up steam and proceeded calmly to the north - where there seemed to be no people, but only mountains, lakes, reedy snow-filled steppes, and winter gods who played with storms and stars. By Mark Helprin Lakes North People Mountains Reedy

If one accepts Hezbollah's self-description as a resistance movement, in which case one must, in light of the fact that Hezbollah never ceases to provoke, view Israel's mere existence as a continuing act of aggression, then Hezbollah has indeed shown that it can initiate conflict, resist, and survive. By Mark Helprin Hezbollah Resist Israel Movement Provoke

Unlike Hezbollah, Israel's more modest aim is to survive, and that it has done. By Mark Helprin Hezbollah Israel Unlike Survive Modest

They were dancing around the fountain, arm in arm, in an old Dutch dance, their cheeks touching, their hands entwined. They had no music; they hummed. And there was no reason for them to be dancing that Peter Lake could see, except that it was an exceptionally beautiful night. By Mark Helprin Dutch Arm Fountain Dance Touching

Columba, Lepus, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Procyon, Betelgeuse, Rigel, Orion, Taurus, Aldebaran, Gemini, Pollux, Castor, Auriga, Capella, the Pleiades, Perseus, Cassiopeia, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Polaris, Draco, Cepheus, Vega, the Northern Cross, Cygnus, Deneb, Delphinus, Andromeda, Triangulum, Aries, Cetus, Pisces, Aquarius, Pegasus, Fomalhaut. By Mark Helprin Lepus Procyon Betelgeuse Rigel Orion

They gave themselves up to the stars the way swimmers can surrender to the waves, and the stars took them without resistance. By Mark Helprin Stars Waves Resistance Gave Swimmers

We like it the way it is. We're enjoying the oscillating balances, the ongoing war between good and evil, the wonderful small triumphs of the soul. Perhaps it's too soon to end all that. Perhaps we need some more time to think things out. By Mark Helprin Balances Evil Soul Enjoying Oscillating

He heard the Baymen tell of war, but they never said it could be harnessed, its head held down, and made to run in place. By Mark Helprin Baymen War Harnessed Place Heard

Words were all he knew; they possessed and overwhelmed him, as if they were a thousand white cats with whom he shared a one-room apartment. By Mark Helprin Words Knew Apartment Possessed Overwhelmed

Not a single illegal immigrant should or need enter the United States, not one. Contrary to the common wisdom, the borders are easy to seal, and controlling entry is hardly totalitarian. By Mark Helprin States United Single Illegal Immigrant

And if you were a spirit, and time did not bind you, and patience and love were all you knew, then there you would wait for someone to return, and the story to unfold. By Mark Helprin Spirit Knew Return Unfold Time

How the holy and the profane mix in the light of day and at the end of life is sometimes the most beautiful thing in this world and a compassionate entry into the next. After failure and defeat, a concentration upon certain beauties, though forever lost and unretrievable, can lift the wounded past roundedness and the dying past dying, protecting them with an image, still and bright, that will ride with them on their long ride, never to fade and never to retreat. By Mark Helprin Holy Profane Mix Light Day

And Peter Lake knew that these things were nothing in themselves but the means by which to remember those he had loved, and to remind him that the power of the love he had known was repeated a million times a million times over, from one soul to another--all worthy, all holy, none ever lost. He glided through the illusions that flashed bravely on the smoke, and he was touched very deeply by the will of things to live in the light. By Mark Helprin Million Times Peter Lake Loved

Somewhat unnerved by what he felt were Germanic currents in a man whom he had taken to be just an Italian intellectual who ate flowers, Strassnitzky cautiously argued that "the records are secret, part of the War Office. How do you expect to match the number with the man?" "I haven't the slightest idea," Alessandro said, almost arrogantly, "but God is directly in charge of all things relating to life and death. That I've learned in the war." "You think God is going to get you the operations records of the Austrian army?" "I don't know, but if He were, wouldn't you imagine that the first thing He'd do would be to have me conveyed to Vienna? By Mark Helprin Strassnitzky Office Germanic Italian Man

The first was that it was almost impossible to get. The second, that, once you had it, it was almost impossible to keep. The third, that these laws applied only to each individual but not to anyone else. In other words, though money was impossible to get and impossible to keep, for everyone else it flowed in by the bucketful and stayed forever. By Mark Helprin Impossible Words Forever Laws Applied

And then I went out to the ocean. Do you know what it was like? The waves broke, and each time they did, as they slapped against the sand, I could feel it all through my body. And each time they broke, and each time they thudded down, they said, you have only one life, you have only one life. By Mark Helprin Time Ocean Life Broke Sand

People in my constituency are starving and born with sixteen fingers. Did you ever eat weasel shish-kebob? Freddy doesn't walk by the side of the motorways to gather dandelions for his salad, but the people who sent me here do. Why are we supporting him? He doesn't deserve it. The Tories won't give milk to children who go to school hungry and come home to baked cat. By Mark Helprin Fingers Constituency Starving Born Sixteen

Small scenes can be so beautiful that they change a man forever. By Mark Helprin Small Forever Scenes Beautiful Change

The intellect is of no use unless it's disciplined by the mortification of the flesh, so that it may serve the soul. That's all. The intellect thinks. The body dances. And the spirit sings. A song, a simple song. When love and memory are overwhelming, and the soul, though crushed, takes flight, it does so in a simple song. By Mark Helprin Song Flesh Intellect Soul Disciplined

I was raised on the Hudson, in a house that had been the stable of the financier and Civil War general Brayton Ives. In midcentury, we had fire pits in the floor for heating, and rats everywhere, because they nested in the hay insulation. By Mark Helprin Hudson Ives Civil War Brayton

What would happen if we took everything that exists in the universe, and divided it by one? I'll tell you. It would remain the same. So, therefore, how do we know that someone isn't doing that right now, at this very instant? It makes me shudder to think of it. We might be constantly divided by one, or multiplied by one for that matter, and we wouldn't even know it! By Mark Helprin Universe Happen Exists Divided Instant

Albany sometimes tried to rattle, but failed to emit an audible sound. By Mark Helprin Albany Rattle Sound Failed Emit

But little else could deter Craig Binky, for he believed that everything about him was destined to be triumphal. Harry Penn was certain that in his nearly one hundred years he had never encountered a soul more intensely marinated in self-satisfaction. Craig Binky's pomposity was often relieved, for others, by what Harry Penn generously termed Mr. Binky's somewhat inexact intelligence. By Mark Helprin Binky Penn Craig Triumphal Harry

Craig Binky decided that to salvage his position he would bear any burden and pay any price, and find out exactly what was going on. He had to redeem his honor. He decided to ask a computer. He By Mark Helprin Binky Craig Price Salvage Position

When people love one another, conversation is not a necessity but a pleasure, and when they reach, as at times they do, deep into the immeasurable part of what holds them together, everything can pass between them without a word. By Mark Helprin Conversation Pleasure Reach Deep Word

Then the bow orchestra began to play an apocalyptically beautiful canon, one of those pieces in which, surely, the composer simply transcribed what was given, and trembled in awe of the hand that was guiding him. By Mark Helprin Surely Canon Bow Orchestra Began

In the eyes of God, all things are interlinked; justice does indeed spring in great surprise from the acts and consequences of ages long forgotten; that love is not broken by time. By Mark Helprin God Interlinked Justice Forgotten Time

You will most appreciate 'Freddy and Fredericka' if you are familiar with the story of the Fall, the Good Hermit, 'Tom Jones,' 'Huckleberry Finn,' 'Paradise Lost,' 'Henry V,' and 'My Cousin Vinny.' That doesn't mean that you can't enjoy or understand it on an emotional level, free of all allusion, which is the test of any book of fiction. By Mark Helprin Freddy Fredericka Fall Hermit Tom

The smell of hot bread came from underneath the tent walls, and Perseus said that the ovens had just been opened. "You haven't eaten in three days. You'd better strengthen yourself." "How can I eat," Alessandro answered, pointing his nose to his padded hands. "Don't be ridiculous, they're perfect for holding a hot loaf of bread. You'll look like a kangaroo, but you'll be able to eat all you want. Now you can pick up a bowl of boiling soup as if you were a Cossack. By Mark Helprin Perseus Walls Opened Smell Underneath

Barnes & Noble is able to publish price-reduced non-copyrighted works not so much because it saves the 10 percent to 15 percent of revenue that would go to the gruel-eating authors, but because it saves the 50 percent that would go to the publishers. By Mark Helprin Percent Saves Noble Barnes Authors

It was a good speech, but the reaction was due to the fact that politics are madness, and even if one does not know it, a country in electoral season experiences flares of lunacy like the great storms that sometimes march across the golden surface of the sun. By Mark Helprin Speech Madness Sun Good Reaction

Battle - a sense that time does not exist, that he himself was of no account, that all things were connected and orchestrated far beyond human will, and that the world was saturated with beauty no matter what the loss. By Mark Helprin Battle Exist Account Loss Sense

Heavy blizzards start as a gentle and persistent snow. By Mark Helprin Heavy Snow Blizzards Start Gentle

he quickly became like so many people in New York; that is, comfortable, forgotten, and alone. Though By Mark Helprin Comfortable Forgotten York Quickly People

The abandoned stars were hers for the many rich hours os sparkling winter nights, and, unattended, she took them in like lovers. She felt that she looked out, not up, into the spacious universe, she knew the names of every bright star and all the constellations, and (although she could not see them) she was familiar with the vast billowing nebulae in which one filament of a wild and shaken mane carried in its trail a hundred million worlds. In a delirium of comets, suns, and pulsating stars, she let her eyes fill with the humming, crackling, hissing light of the galaxy's edge, a perpetual twilight, a gray dawn in one of heaven's many galleries. By Mark Helprin Unattended Nights Lovers Stars Abandoned

But in the end he was so tired and hungry that, rather than walk to Utah, he decided to take his chances in a moss-and-puffball suit on a shock pancake thrown into the air by a giant catapult. Besides, the thing was insanely alluring. By Mark Helprin Utah Suit Catapult End Tired

Of course, you would have to be insane to hope your child grows up to be a playwright or poet. Given the odds, you would have to be quite cavalier about your children's future. By Mark Helprin Poet Insane Hope Child Grows

Marriages are made in heaven which is why they cause so much trouble on earth. By Mark Helprin Marriages Earth Made Heaven Trouble

I know this may sound like an excuse," he said. "But tensor functions in higher differential topology, as exemplified by application of the Gauss-Bonnett Theorem to Todd Polynomials, indicate that cohometric axial rotation in nonadiabatic thermal upwelling can, by random inference derived from translational equilibrium aggregates, array in obverse transitional order the thermodynamic characteristics of a transactional plasma undergoing negative entropy conversions.""Why don't you just shut up," said Hardesty. By Mark Helprin Excuse Sound Polynomials Hardesty Theorem

The best way to meet a woman is in an emergency situation - if you're in a shipwreck, or you find yourself behind enemy lines, or in a flood. By Mark Helprin Situation Shipwreck Lines Flood Meet

We launch our souls from the cannons of art and discipline, and on any one night, hovering over the chimney tops of Europe, halfway to the stars, there are armies of brightly spinning spirits that have risen like fireworks, tethered to the souls of those men and women who, by reflection, mortification, and devotion, effortlessly outdazzle kings. By Mark Helprin Europe Mortification Souls Discipline Night

I was put in charge, made a general, and sent into Serbia, where, by dint of my own ingenuity, we served honorably but did not kill a soul. And that, believe me, is very hard with the Serbs, because they are very ingenious themselves, and they have a passion for martyrdom. "I've been a field marshal for two years. I have so many medals that when I wear them I look like a window in a junk shop. By Mark Helprin Serbia Charge Made General Ingenuity

I don't have a system." "Theology is a system." "Not my theology." "Then what is it?" "What is it? It's the overwhelming combination of all that I've seen, felt, and cannot explain, that has stayed with me and refused to depart, that drives me again and again to a faith of which I am not sure, that is alluring because it will not stoop to be defined by so inadequate a creature as man. Unlike Marxism, it is ineffable, and it cannot be explained in words. By Mark Helprin System Theology Marxism Felt Explain

Because no windows were open and the air was so still and cold that the trees dared not move for fear of encountering more of it than they had to, Christiana thought that she had entered a city of the dead. By Mark Helprin Christiana Dead Windows Open Air

I didn't know the world could be like this ... I've never seen the sky in such a passion of kindness. By Mark Helprin World Kindness Sky Passion

The spark of life is not gain. Nor is it luxury. The spark of life is movement. Color. Love. And furthermore ... if you really want to enjoy life, you must work quietly and humbly to realize your delusions of grandeur. By Mark Helprin Life Gain Spark Luxury Color

Because two propositions can be true at once," he said. "Because the world is imperfect. Because we are imperfect. Because sometimes we're called upon to do terrible things. And because we define ourselves in dying, which is," he indicated by motioning with his head toward the arena, "what this is. Give us at least that. By Mark Helprin Imperfect Propositions True World Things

As I understand it, miracles come to those who risk defeat in seeking them. They come to those who have exhausted themselves completely in a struggle to accomplish the impossible. By Mark Helprin Miracles Understand Risk Defeat Seeking

The horse could not do without Manhattan. It drew him like a magnet, like a vacuum, like oats, or a mare, or an open, never-ending, tree-lined road. By Mark Helprin Manhattan Horse Neverending Magnet Vacuum

A profession is like a great snake that wraps itself around you. Once you are enwrapped, you are in a slow fight for the rest of your life, and the lightness of youth leaves you. By Mark Helprin Profession Great Snake Wraps Enwrapped

Don't worry about things that you simply cannot know. Let them fall back and recede like the foam pushed aside by the flanks of a ship. Leave them behind and let your heart power on. By Mark Helprin Worry Things Simply Ship Leave

Off Castle Garden, a mile to the southeast, near the western edge of Governors Island, a ship lay resting through a foggy spring night before the long and arduous trip back to the old world - whether Riga, Naples, or Constantinople is not certain. By Mark Helprin Naples Garden Island Riga Castle

He knew very well that love could be like the most beautiful singing, that it could make death inconsequential, that it existed in forms so pure and strong that it was capable of reordering the universe. He knew this, and that he lacked it, and yet as he stood in the courtyard of the Palazzo Venezia, watching diplomats file quietly out the gate, he was content, for he suspected that to command the profoundest love might in the end be far less beautiful a thing than to suffer its absence. By Mark Helprin Knew Singing Inconsequential Universe Love

As it somehow always manages before the winter solstice, but never after, the early darkness was cheerful and promising, even for those who had nothing. By Mark Helprin Solstice Promising Manages Winter Early

Whatever I do I've always done not because I want something but to compensate for a loss, to bring about a balance, to create amends, to make things right. By Mark Helprin Loss Balance Amends Compensate Bring

I suppose that's because you have faith in the judicial system that will try us." "Yes. I have faith that we will be found guilty and that we will be shot." "Your faith will be rewarded." "Why? It hasn't been for the last few years. By Mark Helprin Faith Suppose Judicial System Shot

The best thing to do was to stop it while he still could, since it was something that would lead nowhere, painfully. By Mark Helprin Painfully Thing Stop Lead

No good case exists for the inequality of real and intellectual property, because no good case can exist for treating with special disfavor the work of the spirit and the mind. By Mark Helprin Good Case Property Mind Exists

When you're alone you can long so hard for something like an embrace that you mine it from the air. You find it in meanings that you might not otherwise grasp, for which it is helpful to arise early in the morning, when the mind is clear and the heart is gentle. By Mark Helprin Air Long Hard Embrace Mine

And he was seldom out of sight of the new bridges, which had married beautiful womanly Brooklyn to her rich uncle, Manhattan; had put the city's hand out to the country; and were the end of the past because they spanned not only distance and deep water but dreams and time. By Mark Helprin Manhattan Brooklyn Bridges Uncle Country

He thought only of one thingthe geometries before him. Here was God speaking in His simple absolute language, according to the same grammar that He had used to start the planets on their smooth and silken dance. By Mark Helprin Thought Thingthe Geometries God Language

To be in New York on a beautiful day is to feel razor close to being in love. By Mark Helprin York Love Beautiful Day Feel

We are all perfect clocks that the Divinity has set to ticking when, even before birth, the heart explodes into its lifelong dance. By Mark Helprin Divinity Birth Dance Perfect Clocks

Fear, delight, and being twenty were made for each other: By Mark Helprin Fear Delight Twenty Made

For the first time in his life, he felt exactly what he was, and he was not impressed. By Mark Helprin Life Impressed Time Felt

When people ask me why is 'Winter's Tale' a fantasy, I point out that it is not a fantasy. By Mark Helprin Fantasy Winter Tale People Point

All great discoveries ... are products as much of doubt as of certainty, and the two in opposition clear the air for marvelous accidents. By Mark Helprin Discoveries Certainty Accidents Great Products

Though he was scared even to look up, much less down, he raised his hands and caught the side of the gondola. With a stream of curse words known principally to the fourth class of the Accademia San Pietro in Rome, he pulled himself back. By Mark Helprin Gondola Scared Raised Hands Caught

Though the house itself was a fortress, still, Isaac Penn had thought to make sure that anyone who did manage to break in would be kept busy. Thus the vault was not a vault but rather a solid plug of molybdenum steel which extended into the wall for five feet. By Mark Helprin Isaac Penn Fortress Busy House

To be paid for one's joy is to steal. By Mark Helprin Steal Paid Joy

HERE AT THE GOLDEN GATE IS THE ETERNAL RAINBOW THAT HE CONCEIVED AND SET TO FORM. A PROMISE INDEED THAT THE RACE OF MAN SHALL ENDURE INTO THE AGES. Like By Mark Helprin Form Golden Gate Eternal Rainbow

The greatest fight is when you are fighting in the smoke and cannot see with your eyes. By Mark Helprin Eyes Greatest Fight Fighting Smoke

From long familiarity, we know what honor is. It is what enables the individual to do right in the face of complacency and cowardice. It is what enables the soldier to die alone, the political prisoner to resist, the singer to sing her song, hardly appreciated, on a side street. By Mark Helprin Familiarity Enables Long Honor Cowardice

'Creative Commons' is the self-congratulatory name of a self-congratulatory movement. Somewhat like kibbutz on the Internet, the idea is to write programs - 'free ware' - and distribute them without charge. By Mark Helprin Creative Commons Selfcongratulatory Movement Internet

All these things were shaken about within Peter Lake like pots and pans banging against the side of a peddler's swaybacked horse. It was hard to bear the weight of partial revelations which refused to venture past the tip of his tongue. By Mark Helprin Peter Lake Horse Things Shaken

When I was very young, I used to clean up after my parents. If I stay in a hotel, I make the bed and clean the room when I get up, even the bathroom mirror, for which I carry a tiny bottle of ammonia. By Mark Helprin Young Parents Clean Hotel Mirror

Breathing, for example, was never taken for granted, since, half the time, thanks to the many chemical works and refineries, it was nearly impossible. By Mark Helprin Breathing Granted Half Time Refineries

Potatoes have much more staying power than caviar. By Mark Helprin Potatoes Caviar Staying Power

The arts community is generally dominated by liberals because if you are concerned mainly with painting or sculpture, you don't have time to study how the world works. And if you have no understanding of economics, strategy, history and politics, then naturally you would be a liberal. By Mark Helprin Sculpture Works Arts Community Generally

I like the race, rather than the winning.Do you really?Yes, I've imagined great victories, and I've imagined great races. The races are better. By Mark Helprin Imagined Great Victories Races Winningdo

Nobody steals books except kleptomaniacs and university students. In most places you can leave a book on the street and come back for in the next day. By Mark Helprin Students Steals Kleptomaniacs University Day

A tranquil city of good laws, fine architecture, and clean streets is like a classroom of obedient dullards, or a field of gelded bulls - whereas a city of anarchy is a city of promise. By Mark Helprin City Laws Fine Architecture Dullards

No," De Roos said. "You mustn't thank me. The relatives of patients thank the physician as if the physician were God. It's no good, and if the patient dies it turns to ash - not just for them, but, as you can imagine, for me. I'll see you later. By Mark Helprin Roos Physician God Good Ash

The streets of New York and some wards of its venerable institutions were packed with people who, despite being entirely forsaken, had episodes of glory that made the career of Alexander the Great seem like a day in the life of a file clerk. By Mark Helprin York Alexander Great Forsaken Clerk

I don't aspire at present to be king of the hill in American literature. By Mark Helprin American Literature Aspire Present King

The room, as she saw it, was a web of motion, a symphony of mischievou dancing particles quite like the smooth and placid notes of a fine concerto. By Mark Helprin Room Motion Concerto Web Symphony

Isn't Mr. Cecil Wooley the fattest, slittiest-eyed thing you've ever seen? And don't you suppose that being called Reverend Doctor Mootfowl is not a common phenomenon, and never has been? By Mark Helprin Cecil Wooley Fattest Slittiesteyed Thing

I've never had a cup of coffee in my life. I can't even remain in the same room with coffee. By Mark Helprin Life Coffee Cup Remain Room

Many people just like to show that they're thinking the right thoughts. And as the 'right' thoughts change like the wind, so do they. By Mark Helprin Thoughts People Show Thinking Wind

Rigel, Betelgeuse, and Orion. There was no finer church, no finer choir, than the stars speaking in silence to the many consumptives silently condemned, a legion upon the dark rooftops. The wind came down from the north like a runner in lacrosse, violent and hard, to batter every living thing. They were there, each one alone in conversation with the stars, mining ephemeral love from cold and distant light. By Mark Helprin Betelgeuse Orion Rigel Finer Stars

There's something about rushing water that I can watch for hours and feel as if I need to do nothing more. It's alive in a way that's greater than any description of it ... By Mark Helprin Rushing Water Watch Hours Feel

At this instant, Alessandro was electrified, as if lightning had struck the telephone wire or Saint Elmo's fire had filled the room, for part of the dream that he could not recall had come back to him with full force. By Mark Helprin Alessandro Saint Elmo Instant Electrified

The human race is intoxicated with narrow victories, for life is a string of them like pearls that hit the floor when the rope breaks, and roll away in perfection and anarchy. By Mark Helprin Victories Breaks Anarchy Human Race

Their conversation had gone like this: 'Something something, something something, something something something ... the White Dog of Afghanistan ... something something something, something, something, something else, something entirely unintelligible. By Mark Helprin Conversation Afghanistan White Dog Unintelligible

The difference between classes of men is that the vast majority remember youth as their glory, and the tiniest fraction, in escaping a life of drudgery and increasing difficulty, finds something even better. By Mark Helprin Glory Fraction Difficulty Finds Difference

Peter Lake had no illusions about mortality. He knew that it made everyone perfectly equal, and that the treasures of the earth were movement, courage, laughter, and love. The wealthy could not buy these things. On the contrary, they were for the taking. By Mark Helprin Lake Peter Mortality Illusions Courage

A lot of people hate heroes. I was criticized for portraying people who are brave, honest, loving, intelligent. That was called weak and sentimental. People who dismiss all real emotion as sentimentality are cowards. They're afraid to commit themselves, and so they remain 'cool' for the rest of their lives, until they're dead - then they're really cool. By Mark Helprin People Heroes Lot Hate Cool

Of course, everyone in the New World is an immigrant or a descendant of immigrants, and immigrants have built America and continue to do so. Legal or illegal, they are almost universally good people who work to better their lot and that of their children. By Mark Helprin World America Immigrants Descendant Built

He knew that, in the eyes of God, all things are interlinked; he knew that justice does indeed spring in great surprise from the acts and consequences of ages long forgotten; and he knew that love is not broken by time. By Mark Helprin Knew God Interlinked Forgotten Time

Resurrection, he thought, comes not by plan or effort, and should the past ever come alive, it will be a great surprise, in which images and ritual memory will pale. By Mark Helprin Resurrection Thought Effort Alive Surprise

He moved like a dancer, which is not surprising; a horse is a beautiful animal, but it is perhaps most remarkable because it moves as if it always hears music. By Mark Helprin Dancer Surprising Animal Music Moved

Not born to be rich, by 1981 I had nonetheless begun to use a PC that required for its operation the absorption of several hundred pages of protocols and the placement of very large floppy disks in the freezer to fix frequent crashes. By Mark Helprin Rich Crashes Born Nonetheless Begun

Give me a night by the fire, with a book in my hand, not that flickering rectangular son of a bitch that sits screaming in every living room in the land. By Mark Helprin Give Fire Hand Land Night

Life is so quick that it's all played out at the gates of death, and the value of resolution is that it quickens life. By Mark Helprin Death Life Quick Played Gates

Physical features count little unless they are illumined from within. By Mark Helprin Physical Features Count Illumined

He was able to find the intensity and beauty that he wanted, in the plung itself. Physical forces in a complicated coalition of gravity, acceleration, and temperature were powerful and intense enough to satisfy him. It made sense. Nothing was as comforting as the enduring purity of elemental forces, and returning to them could not mean defeat. But he never thought that he would die in a bark suit, strapped to a shock pancake, next to an incompetent midget. By Mark Helprin Wanted Find Intensity Beauty Plung

When you die, you know, you hear the insistent pounding that defines all things, whether of matter or energy, since there is nothing in the universe, really, but proportion. By Mark Helprin Die Things Energy Universe Proportion

In fact, one might make the case that New York would not have shone without its legions of contrary devils polishing the lights of goodness with their inexplicable opposition and resistance. By Mark Helprin York Fact Resistance Make Case

How far do you have to go before you forgive yourself for how you were born? By Mark Helprin Born Forgive

They're not just dreams. Not anymore, I dream more than I wake now, and, at times, I have crossed over. Can't you see? I've been there. By Mark Helprin Dreams Dream Anymore Times Wake

It is said that marriage is a long war between ancient families trapped in close proximity by lust. By Mark Helprin Lust Marriage Long War Ancient

In living, one muddles through the years for the sake of those one or two moments which are indisputably great. By Mark Helprin Living Great Muddles Years Sake

Though builders may build, in the main they follow the plans of architects. Teachers teach, but they must have a text. Politicians govern, but only upon the flow of commentary that raises them up or casts them down. By Mark Helprin Build Architects Builders Main Follow

I have been fighting over commas all my life. By Mark Helprin Life Fighting Commas

What argument is left with someone you love if she is willing to break your heart? By Mark Helprin Heart Argument Left Love Break

I wanted the music to be full, to surround us, to lift us like the swell, so I rented a bloody orchestra. You only live once. By Mark Helprin Full Swell Orchestra Wanted Music

Then in the darkness and purity of the meadows he began to feel that the world had many secrets, that they were shattering even to glimpse or sense, and that they were not necessarily unpleasant. In certain states of light he could see, he could begin to sense, things most miraculous indeed. Although it seemed self-serving, he concluded nonetheless, after a lifetime of adhering to the diffuse principles of a science he did not know, that there was life after death, that the dead rose into a mischievous world of pure light, that something most mysterious lay beyond the the enfolding darkness, something wonderful. By Mark Helprin Sense Secrets Unpleasant Purity Meadows

Writing is still my main career, but I would love, for instance, to serve in the New York State Assembly. By Mark Helprin Assembly York State Writing Career

Only bad actors memorize lines. Good actors are perpetually writing them as they act. By Mark Helprin Lines Actors Bad Memorize Good

I read. The more you read, the more the world opens up to you... and the happier you are and more comforted you feel. It's up to you. No you is educated who cannot educate himself. By Mark Helprin Read Feel World Opens Happier

At least until there are new lakes in the clouds that open upon living cities as yet unknown, and perhaps forever, that is a question which you must answer within your own heart. By Mark Helprin Unknown Forever Heart Lakes Clouds

If your faith is genuine, then you meet your responsibilities, fulfill your obligations, and wait until you are found. It will come. If not to you, then to your children, and if not to them, then to their children. By Mark Helprin Genuine Responsibilities Fulfill Obligations Found

The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself. By Mark Helprin Cappuccino Stronger Espresso Mocha Combined

It's a defining difference, curiosity. I've never known a stupid person who was curious, or a curious person who was stupid. By Mark Helprin Curiosity Difference Defining Person Stupid

He wanted more than anything in the world to embrace her. But it seemed out of the question. Then she turned to him and stretched out her arms. And he went to her as if he had been born for it. By Mark Helprin Wanted World Embrace Question Arms

Well-timed silence is the most commanding expression. By Mark Helprin Welltimed Expression Silence Commanding

Why do people resist [engines, bridges, and cities] so? They are symbols and products of the imagination, which is the force that ensures justice and historical momentum in an imperfect world, because without imagination we would not have the wherewithal to challenge certainty, and we could never rise above ourselves. By Mark Helprin Engines Bridges Resist Cities People

In the Freudian age, parents say to their children, 'Don't be defensive,' meaning, 'You have no argument,' but I was born in the age of Rommel, when defense was considered an honorable thing. By Mark Helprin Meaning Rommel Freudian Parents Children

I'm sort of murdered for selling books. The idea is, if you make money your work can't be literary. By Mark Helprin Books Sort Murdered Selling Literary

Your time is a good time, and though I have to leave, you can stay. How lucky you are to be in the city just before it opens its eyes upon a golden age. By Mark Helprin Leave Stay Time Good Age

What is apparent is not always what is true. By Mark Helprin True Apparent

Accident is as much a part of fiction as anything else, symbolic of the grace that, along with will, conspires to put words on the page. By Mark Helprin Accident Symbolic Conspires Page Part

Mozart and Neil Diamond may have begun with the same idea, but that a work of art is more than an idea is confirmed by the difference between the 'Soave sia il vento' and 'Kentucky Woman.' We have different words for 'art' and 'idea' because they are two different things. By Mark Helprin Soave Kentucky Woman Neil Diamond

For a gift that does not find balance and a service that is not returned are worth less than a curse. By Mark Helprin Curse Gift Find Balance Service

The British monarchy has the political and constitutional task of subtracting from the government and governors of Britain the papal and kingly airs that in America, because we have no such institution, unfortunately adhere to the president. By Mark Helprin America British Britain Institution President

They danced on the shore in marvelous, civilized, humorous reels in which the old contributed wit when they could not contribute grace, and the young listened to their elders, who told them in their dancing to hold on, to love, to be patient, and most of all, to trust. By Mark Helprin Civilized Marvelous Humorous Grace Elders

The beauty of truth is that it need not be proclaimed or believed. It skips from soul to soul, changing form each time it touches, but it is what it is, I have seen it, and someday you will, too. By Mark Helprin Believed Beauty Truth Proclaimed Soul

The shelf was filled with books that were hard to read, that could devastate and remake one's soul, and that, when they were finished, had a kick like a mule. By Mark Helprin Read Soul Finished Mule Shelf

If when she is aged you cannot see in the eyes of a woman the youth she was at eighteen, then it is not she that is old but you that are blind. By Mark Helprin Eighteen Blind Aged Eyes Woman

Rome was not meant to move, but to be beautiful. The wind was supposed to be the fastest thing here, and the trees, bending and swaying, to slow it down. Now By Mark Helprin Rome Move Beautiful Meant Trees

A cat is an excuse for a lonely woman to talk to herself. That's what a cat is. By Mark Helprin Cat Excuse Lonely Woman Talk

Just the two of us. We're in it together. The pleasure will be ours alone. For the rest of our lives. By Mark Helprin Lives Pleasure Rest

In America, Fredericka, they don't really have trains for people. The trains here are used mainly to transport pigs, television sets, and fruit. By Mark Helprin Fredericka America People Trains Pigs

Because I don't need oxygen. I've already come to all my conclusions. I'm just slowly gliding down. Someday I'll be as light as a feather. By Mark Helprin Oxygen Conclusions Someday Feather Slowly

Humankind, or at least American-kind, will lose its edge as we produce more and more pipsqueaks and everyone gets nicer. Whole generations of pipsqueaks will be so fucking nice you won't be able to tell a man from a woman ... And it will get worse and worse as people mistake nice for good. HItler was nice, supposedly, most of the time. A lot of good that did ... By Mark Helprin Americankind Humankind Nicer Pipsqueaks Nice

Because there were all kinds of hell - some were black and dirty, and some were silvery and high. By Mark Helprin Hell Dirty High Kinds Black

One shouldn't ever do anything to protect one's dignity. You either have it or you don't. By Mark Helprin Dignity Protect

For example, they recently had a piece on a characterI think his name was Ambrosio D'Urbervilleswhose "design statement" was to stuff an entire apartment from floor to ceiling with dark purple cottonballs. He called it "Portrait of a Dead Camel Dancing on the Roof of a Steambath. By Mark Helprin Ambrosio Durbervilleswhose Design Statement Cottonballs

And how does God speak to you?""In the language of everything that is beautiful. By Mark Helprin God Beautiful Speak Language

I have to confess that I have so rarely experienced triumph that I cannot claim to know it well enough to judge, but it seems to be at best a momentary joy followed instantly by sadness, and, then, of necessity, by wariness. By Mark Helprin Judge Sadness Necessity Wariness Confess

But each time he received an invitation from the Harvard Club to join ... he postponed his application for the time when he could do little but rest in the kind of comfortable chair that is to the end of life what a cradle is to the beginning. Pg 55 By Mark Helprin Harvard Club Join Time Received

If you don't have compassion you won't be compelled to help. By Mark Helprin Compassion Compelled

Alessandro learned yet again that the joy of escape is better than the joy of merely being free. By Mark Helprin Joy Alessandro Free Learned Escape

Besides, he grew up in the city of the poor. You know as well as I do that in this country Marxism is a religious passion of the middle class. By Mark Helprin Poor Grew City Marxism Class

I was brought up,' Freddy informed him, 'not to suffer anxiety about decisive initiative of all types. By Mark Helprin Freddy Types Brought Informed Suffer

They had taken to the movement unlike anything he had ever seen, and he thought that should this venture of the Jews prove successful, the new state would be filled with dancers and musicians, but especially dancers, for dancing like nothing else says: I am still alive. By Mark Helprin Jews Dancers Successful Musicians Alive

That's writing, huh. What does it do?" "It's like talking, but it makes no sound. By Mark Helprin Huh Writing Talking Sound Makes

No matter what it is, if you don't move your eyes and set the pace yourself, your intellect is sentenced to death. The mind, you see, is like a muscle. For it to remain agile and strong, it must work. Television rules that out. By Mark Helprin Death Matter Move Eyes Set

The mind, you see, is like a muscle. For it to remain agile and strong, it must work. By Mark Helprin Mind Muscle Strong Work Remain

to cite Montaigne, "Nature always gives us happier laws than those we give ourselves."125 By Mark Helprin Montaigne Nature Ourselves Cite Happier

Those who are vain have little ability to feel grateful. By Mark Helprin Grateful Vain Ability Feel

It was easy to argue with Quagliagliarello, if you had patience, and if you could pronounce his name. By Mark Helprin Quagliagliarello Patience Easy Argue Pronounce

They were already in love and both of them knew it, but for both it was too fast. By Mark Helprin Fast Love Knew

Anticipation is the heart of wisdom. If you are going to cross a desert, you anticipate that you will be thirsty, and you take water. By Mark Helprin Anticipation Wisdom Heart Desert Thirsty

If it weren't for music, I would think that love is mortal. By Mark Helprin Music Mortal Love

Isn't it better to think nothing than to think something that is completely idiotic? By Mark Helprin Idiotic Completely

Reason is a fine thing, but it is not the only thing available to a writer. It's just part of the arsenal of many things available to a storyteller. Revelation, for example. By Mark Helprin Reason Writer Thing Fine Revelation

One thing you will discover is that life is based less than you think on what you've learned and much more than you think on what you have inside you from the beginning. By Mark Helprin Beginning Thing Discover Life Based

No one knows better than I that it's all here, and need not be explained or interpreted - just seized. By Mark Helprin Interpreted Seized Explained

One of the things I worked very hard on all my life was to be like everyone else. I tried very hard to fit in. By Mark Helprin Hard Things Worked Life Fit

As much as I love art, there is no art as fine as the world we have been given. By Mark Helprin Art Love Fine World

The treasures of the earth were movement, courage, laughter and love. By Mark Helprin Courage Movement Laughter Love Treasures

How just it would be if for our final reward we were to be made the masters of time, and if those we love could come alive again not just in memory, but in truth. By Mark Helprin Time Memory Truth Final Reward

You can't do anything absolutely by reason. That's because reason depends on postulates. Postulates defy proof and yet they are essential to reason. By Mark Helprin Reason Absolutely Postulates Depends Defy

but, as we know, even when the silver wears away and you're left with copper, if you attend to it every day it has a gleam all its own. By Mark Helprin Copper Silver Wears Left Attend

Souls are complicated things. By Mark Helprin Souls Things Complicated

Justice came from a fight amid complexities, and required all the virtues in the world merely to be perceived. By Mark Helprin Justice Complexities Perceived Fight Amid

We have been so enthusiastic in our welcome as to be obsequious - to machines. By Mark Helprin Obsequious Machines Enthusiastic

Marxists are people whose insides are torn up day after day because they want to rule the world and no one will even publish their letter to the editor. By Mark Helprin Marxists Editor Day People Insides

In daily life language is important, if not in itself, then as a symptom. By Mark Helprin Important Symptom Daily Life Language

to defeat pain he had to separate it from time, its most useful ally. By Mark Helprin Time Ally Defeat Pain Separate

I saw how greatly he suffered the requirement of being clever. It separated him from his soul, and it didn't get him anything other than a living. By Mark Helprin Clever Greatly Suffered Requirement Soul

When soldiers go home, their first desire, whether they know it or not, is to have children, children being the only antidote for war. By Mark Helprin Home Desire War Children Soldiers

As the clockwork of the millennia moved a notch in front of their eyes, it had taken their thoughts from small things and reminded them of how vulnerable they were to time. By Mark Helprin Eyes Time Clockwork Millennia Moved

For what can be imagined more beautiful than the sight of a perfectly just city rejoicing in justice alone. By Mark Helprin Imagined Beautiful Sight Perfectly City

Harry understood that those left behind - the failures and the deformed, the suffering and the dead - are not just equal in soul, but that they are we and we are they. Struggle as we may for distinction, soon enough we fail, and, without exception, follow. By Mark Helprin Harry Deformed Dead Soul Understood

A benevolent act is like a locust: it sleeps until it is called. By Mark Helprin Locust Called Benevolent Act Sleeps

They knew that to survive in Manhattan he would have to know something of bitterness before he arrived. By Mark Helprin Manhattan Arrived Knew Survive Bitterness

Critics can neither build nor explore. All they do, really, is say yes or no - and complicate it. By Mark Helprin Critics Explore Build Complicate

Though he had spoken of the subject many times, in the silence of his room he added the powerful kind of phrasing that would not have occurred to him as he spoke, because it's origins were in the collaboration of hand and pen. By Mark Helprin Times Spoke Pen Spoken Subject

She knew words no one had ever heard of, and she used words every day that had been mainly dead or sleeping for hundreds of years. By Mark Helprin Years Words Knew Heard Day

Time however can be easily overcome; not by chasing the light, but by standing back far enough to see it all at once. By Mark Helprin Time Overcome Light Easily Chasing

When faced with something I fear, I tend to eat spaghetti. By Mark Helprin Fear Spaghetti Faced Tend Eat

Perhaps he was a fool, but he thought that if a work were truly great you would only have to read it once and you would be stolen from yourself, desperately moved, changed forever. By Mark Helprin Fool Desperately Moved Changed Forever

His name was Peter Lake, and he said to himself out loud, You're in bad shape when a horse takes pity on you, you stupid bastard, By Mark Helprin Lake Peter Loud Bastard Bad

She felt as if she knew the stars, and had been among them, or would be. By Mark Helprin Stars Felt Knew

Read what you find interesting, and then follow your interests. You'll find that in doing so you always generate enough to illuminate the next step. By Mark Helprin Read Interesting Interests Find Follow

Whatever is, is, and whatever is not, is not By Mark Helprin

He felt as if he were paying for the privilege of music with portions of his life and body. But it was well worth it. By Mark Helprin Body Felt Paying Privilege Music

They move, don't they? Who do you think sets things to moving? Nothing that moves lacks a soul. By Mark Helprin Moving Soul Sets Things Move

What could be more lovely than writing a book about something you love? By Mark Helprin Love Lovely Writing Book

The trick in nuclear strategy is to maintain stability by balancing potentials and thus to discourage events from converting the hypothetical to the actual. By Mark Helprin Actual Trick Nuclear Strategy Maintain

If nothing is random, and everything is predetermined, how can there be free will? The answer to that is simple. Nothing is predetermined; it is determined, or was determined, or will be determined. By Mark Helprin Predetermined Determined Random Free Simple

Disdain is only as intense as similarity. By Mark Helprin Disdain Similarity Intense

strength floods in after a fall. By Mark Helprin Strength Fall Floods

On my last ride on the RR train I looked almost as lovingly at the faces and expressions of my fellow passengers as if I were staring a a photograph of times long past. They did not know that they made a photograph. They did not understand the vanishing background of their lives ... By Mark Helprin Past Photograph Ride Train Looked

Her eyes showed that though she may have decided to regret him, as long as he was in her presence she could not. By Mark Helprin Eyes Showed Decided Regret Long