The only attribution I have for this is a friend who says that they "saw it in a comment thread somewhere."
i think effort pays off though. look at all the lazy wannabes who want to blame everyone but themselves for lack of success. But we should be teaching how to work smart. be efficient.
But there's one thing I'm sure about. An opening line should invite the reader to begin the story. It should say: Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this. - Stephen King
This is why Stephen King's books all start with "Listen. Come in here. You want to know about this." Fuck this "Call me Ishmael" crap.
I'm sure everyone in the world has heard this a hundred times over, but it bears repeating. "There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. Some kind of high powered mutant never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die." - Hunter S. Thompson
"Could' ave, should' ave, would' ave, blah, blah, blah. I say fuck' ave and liveth." - Just came up with that.
"Don't get me wrong I like you as a friend. I just don't want to get married. " (I said to my dog this morning)
"There are times when fear is good. It must keep its watchful place at the heart's controls. There is advantage in the wisdom won from pain." - Aeschylus "True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind. The fool is obstinate, and doubteth not he knoweth all things but his own ignorance." - Akhenaton "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom." - Isaac Asimov "A prudent question is one-half of wisdom." - Francis Bacon "Challenge is not a curse or a punishment, but an opportunity to shine. If life were easy all the time, we would not deepen in love, compassion, and wisdom, or learn how to sink a pipeline into the well of true strength within us. Often we do not know how powerful we are until we are faced with a challenge that draws forth our greatness." - Alan Cohen "To know that one knows what one knows, and to know that one doesn't know what one doesn't know, there lies true wisdom." - Confucius "By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; And third, by experience, which is bitterest." - Confucius
“Carry a 25 if it makes you feel good, but do not ever load it. If you load it you may shoot it. If you shoot it you may hit somebody, and if you hit somebody, and he finds out about it, he may be very angry with you.” – Col. Jeff Cooper
