One thing about London is that when you step out into the night, it swallows you. Sebastian Faulks More Quotes by Sebastian Faulks More Quotes From Sebastian Faulks The thunder of false modesty was deafening. Sebastian Faulks false-modesty thunder modesty It's only after the change is fully formed that you can see what's happened. Sebastian Faulks happened It was too difficult. People weren't prepared to put in the hours on the donkey work - you know, dates and facts and so on. I think in retrospect my generation will be seen as a turning point. From now on there'll be a net loss of knowledge in Europe. The difference between a peasant community in fourteenth-century Iran and modern London, though, is that if with their meager resources the villagers occasionally slipped backward, it was not for lack of trying. But with us, here in England, it was a positive choice. We chose to know less. Sebastian Faulks iran loss thinking The best thing is the combined effect of nicotine with alcohol, greater than the sum of the two parts. Sebastian Faulks nicotine alcohol two I want to be careful not to throw all this away. This is happiness. I think this is what happiness is. I haven't got it yet, but I can sense it out there. I feel I'm close to it. Some days, I'm so close I can almost smell it. Sebastian Faulks smell want thinking I breathed and breathed and did feel some calmness enter in, though it was, as always, shot with a sense of loss. Loss and fear. Sebastian Faulks shots fear loss They're so attached to their patterns that they've forgotten rule number one of human behavior: there are no patterns. People just do things. There's no such things as a coherent and fully integrated human personality, let alone consistent motivation. Sebastian Faulks motivation numbers people I think I have fallen in love and I believe the woman in question, though she has not said so, returns my feelings. How can I be sure when she has said nothing? Is this youthful vanity? I wish in some ways that it were. But I am so convinced that I barely need question myself. This conviction brings me no joy.[…]I am driven by a greater force than I can resist. I believe that force has its own reason and its own morality even if they may never be clear to me while I am alive. Sebastian Faulks vanity believe thinking Knowing one was comprised of recycled matter only and that selfhood was a delusion did not take away the aching of the heart. Sebastian Faulks knowing matter heart Shakespeare drew a map of the human mind as clearly as Newton mapped the heavens. Wht is one considered science and the other fir only to be mocked with jokes about pretty girls and drury lane? Sebastian Faulks girl mind heaven The nicest characters in A Week in December research are, in fact, Muslims - and their religious devotion is one of the things that defines them. Sebastian Faulks religious character facts In the 1970s, British food was beginning to get good, whereas in France it was just starting its long, sad decline. My most memorable meals, however, have been in Italy. Sebastian Faulks meals memorable long Life can be lived at a remove. You trade in futures, and then you trade in derivatives of futures. Banks make more money trading derivatives than they do trading actual commodities. Sebastian Faulks more-money derivatives commodity Busy is good, isn't it? Busy means we're hard at it, achieving our ends or "goals." Haven't had time to stop, or look around or think. That's considered the sign of a life well lived ... Suppose, though, you're not sure that what you're doing is at all worthwhile. Suppose you blundered into it over a spoonful of lime pickle. It's easy, it pays quite well. But really it's a distraction. It stops you thinking about what you ought to be doing. Sebastian Faulks goal mean thinking If you have only one life, you cant altogether ignore the question: are you enjoying it? Sebastian Faulks cant enjoy ifs I think closeness to death would be pretty exhilarating in a way, and friendship, yeh, and selflessness, a kind of selflessness, a sense of your own worthlessness, I think, is pretty exhilarating. Sebastian Faulks would-be way thinking There arent many great passages written about food, but I love one by George Millar, who worked for the SOE in the second world war and wrote a book called Horned Pigeon. He had been on the run and hadnt eaten for a week, and his description of the cheese fondue he smells in the peasant kitchen of a house in eastern France is unbelievable. Sebastian Faulks running war book You can't recall someone whose name has worn away. Sebastian Faulks recalls worn names That's what opium does to suffering: makes it of hypothetical interest only. Sebastian Faulks interest suffering doe A bit of the vagueness of music stops you going completely mad, I imagine. Sebastian Faulks vagueness mad imagine
