M. Diers
How about we let people who have actually lived a life tell us what life is like? Even if they are wrong, they will at least be speaking from experience, and thus be able to impart some small measure of wisdom.
Teilo
- A mindless platitude
A generic observation about something that some people do or some people think about something, followed by a reason why said people are hopelessly inept. Then cometh the word "So," followed by a tyrannical demand that you not be like those other people. Occasionally concluded with another generic observation about how things will be better if you submit to said tyranny.
Stephen M. Pederson
- A real writer
He often wished that he could be a writer; a real writer, who wrote for the pleasure of writing; who didn't care if he was ever popular, or if his mother or father were proud of his prose. Real writers wrote because they must, because to stop writing would be the same as to stop eating. But he was not a writer. He often picked up a pen and stared at a blank piece of paper. Sometimes he would write a few lines, but he would always scratch them out, and finally give up, and go watch TV.
Armarium Magnum
The idea that the medieval Church taught the earth was flat, that Columbus bravely defied their primitive Biblical superstition and proved they were wrong by sailing to America is a great story. Unfortunately, it's historical nonsense - a fable with zero basis in reality... I've also experienced atheists who have been shown extensive, clear evidence that the medieval Church taught the earth was round... and they have simply refused to believe that the myth could be wrong.
Theadore Beal
The vast majority of atheists become atheists as teenagers, before they have embarked upon any course of study, and they become atheists for reasons that are entirely emotional by their own account. They then turn to science for the explanations that they can no longer seek in religion, and are understandably disappointed and embittered when they cannot find them there either.
Orson Scott Card
- Shadow of the Giant
If you give orders and explain nothing, you might get obedience, but you'll get no creativity. If you tell them your purpose, then when your original plan is shown to be faulty, they'll find another way to achieve your goal. Explaining to your men doesn't weaken their respect for you, it proves your respect for them.
Dean Koontz
- Lightning
Envy, envy eats them alive. If you had money, they'd envy you that. But since you don't, they envy you for having such a good, bright, loving daughter. They envy you for just being a happy man. They envy you for not envying them. One of the greatest sorrows of human existence is that some people aren't happy merely to be alive but find their happiness only in the misery of others.
Dean Koontz
- Midnight
Even as a child, she had preferred night to day, had enjoyed sitting out in the yard after sunset, under the star-speckled sky listening to frogs and crickets. Darkness soothed. It softened the sharp edges of the world, toned down the too-harsh colors. With the coming of twilight, the sky seemed to recede; the universe expanded. The night was bigger than the day, and in its realm, life seemed to have more possibilities.
Dean Koontz
Please, don't torture me with cliches. If you're going to try to intimidate me, have the courtesy to go away for a while, acquire a better education, improve your vocabulary, and come back with some fresh metaphors.
Martin Luther
- Simultaneously Saint and Sinner
We are in truth and totally sinners, with regard to ourselves and our first birth. Contrariwise, in so far as Christ has been given for us, we are holy and just totally. Hence from different aspects we are said to be just and sinners at one and the same time.
