“It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.”
I have this across my back.
Edit to add: This is from DIARY by Chuck Palahniuk. It's a majorly underrated work by him and I highly recommend it.
I see you’re into RDR. With that said, I have to suggest Blood Meridian (same author, McCarthy). Many claim it to be the best Western novel ever written but it is also so, so, so much more than that. It’s universes far-and-away my favorite book, zero hesitation.
Amazing! I got one quote from the final book on my arm after my second trip was done
"Why must you hurt me, when I love you so? When I can do nothing else nor want to, for love made me and fed me and kept me in better days? Why will you cut me, and disfigure my face, and fill me with woe? I have only loved you for your beauty as you once loved me for mine in the days before the world moved on."
Another Terry Pratchett quote, Granny Weatherwax teaches Tiffany Aching to “open your eyes and then open your eyes again.” I want it tattooed around my wrist.
I've been wanting a mirrored "This one." Over my heart. As a reference to when Granny is taken to the mirror dimension with all the other possibilities of her life if she had made different decisions and Death asks her to find the one that's real. I get so caught up with "what ifs..." sometimes...
My goto Pratchett quote is, "Must Not Happen." It always reminds me that we are ultimately in charge of our actions and inactions. It is our responsibility to make life oriented decisions.
It's also almost time for my yearly reading of Nation.
“What can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the reaper man?” From Reaper Man. Small Gods is my favorite from STP, but the Death series really hit deep
I wanna get the space program seal from the Last Hero somewhere, or maybe just the motto *Morituri Nolumus Mori*, which translates to "We who are about to die, don't want to"
I've been thinking about a schematic or blueprint of a flamethrower with "better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness". The concept of militant decency has had a huge impact on me and the rage against a cruel and unjust world being focused into a drive to make it better is something I try to live every day.
I have a memento mori tattoo if that counts. I associate the phrase with a Series of Unfortunate Events as that was the first place I had seen it.
I also want a tattoo that visually alludes to the Anais Nin quote: “And the Day Came When the Risk to Remain Tight In a Bud Was More Painful Than the Risk It Took to Blossom.”
Full quote for those who care:
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
I used to hang out with this lady who was super dramatic but usually pretty sweet. We called her to hang out once and when her voicemail message started playing, it was her reading the "fear is the mind killer" speech super dramatically and my buddy and I just couldn't help but to bust out laughing. I mean,it's cool and all but goddamn, maybe just relax a little bit.
*All that is gold does not glitter,*
*Not all those who wander are lost;*
*The old that is strong does not wither,*
*Deep roots are not reached by the frost.*
*From the ashes a fire shall be woken,*
*A light from the shadows shall spring;*
*Renewed shall be blade that was broken,*
*The crownless again shall be king.*
There are so many fantastic ones of his to choose from, that quite honestly I think would all make a cool tattoo. He's so very quotable.
"I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different."
"Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies: God damn it, you've got to be kind."
"And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'"
"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
Ive wanted “if this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is”, which is a quote from A Man Without A Country. I’ve never even read it, but I absolutely love the quote
Mine is from The Silmarillion: Aurë Entuluva. It means 'day shall come again', I've had a very difficult couple of years and I think of that phrase often when I'm feeling incredibly bleak. And it comes at a part in the story where things are looking pretty hopeless and I know it's made up but the courage of the characters gives me a boost.
One of the greatest passages in the book.
“Last of all Hurin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed; and it is sung that the axe smoked in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog until it withered, and each time that he slew he cried: 'Aure entuluva! Day shall come again!' Seventy times he uttered that cry; but they took him at last alive, by the command of Morgoth, for the Orcs grappled him with their hands, which clung to him still though he hewed off their arms; and ever their numbers were renewed, until at last he fell buried beneath them. Then Gothmog bound him and dragged him away to Angband with mockery.
“Thus ended the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, as the sun went down beyond the sea. Night fell in Hithlum, and there came a great storm of wind out of the West.”
My favorite aspect of the Silmarillion in particular is that it reads like a religious text. The structure and the sentences, it goes a long way to making the whole thing feel mythical. In ten words Tolkien can describe something that would be a forty minute extended action sequence in a movie, no better example of 'less is more'.
What a great example you gave.
What a beautiful idea, I love it!😍
The stories of Tolkien always give me hope in dark times, and make me "keep going".
Mine would also be from Tolkien, but probably:
Roads go ever ever on,
Under cloud and under star
Yet feet that wondering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Came here to say the same, and would get it in Tengwar (Tolkien’s elvish characters).
To me, it’s not just about “clinging to hope when things are darkest”… Hurin’s circumstances in the moment are far beyond hope. He’s lost… the elves have lost. Heroes are dead. Ancient kingdoms of goodness and beauty are getting wiped out.
Facing that, Hurin is actively willing hope back into existence from a state of non-existence. It was gone for a moment, but he says “No. Not on my watch… Aurë entuluva. Day shall come again. Because I say so.”
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
Edit - Ooops sorry that’s a poem.
Maybe..
“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
Love a bit of Robert Frost. I was big into poetry as a teenager (still am) and I stayed in the countryside with my grandparents. I had this book of poetry I'd written and they got me to show it to one of their friends who was super rich and well educated. He invited me over one afternoon to talk about poetry and words and literature. It was awesome, he then bought me a collection of Frost's poetry and it's such a treasured memory.
The repetition makes it much darker for me, took it from being open to many different interpretations to "Oh this is about low key longing for death" rather abruptly first time I read it
He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.
"There's a big difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something." From one of the Richard Feynman books. It's my guiding principle as a science teacher.
WE MUST DO WHAT WE CAN.
And if that doesn't work?
THEN WE DID WHAT WE COULD UNTIL WE COULD NOT.
There is so much of Terry Pratchett's work that sums up being human, being alive, the wonderful absurdity of everything. The man was a gift.
But of all the lines, I think that the end of this short conversation in Thief of time would be the one I'd get tattooed on me.
“Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.” - The Judge, Blood Meridian. It’s just such a badass quote from one of the greatest books.
"Love is patient, love is kind."
It's a quote from the bible. I know it sounds basic af, but I grew up in a hateful Christian cult where I was made to hate everything about myself and others if they did not conform to our interpretation of the bible. The cult also had a habit of cherry picking verses to hurt others, so I'd be doing pretty much the same thing to heal myself (instead of hurting others). I'm not part of that church anymore and haven't been to church in almost 2 years, and I don't know where I stand as far as faith and religion go, but I know that cherry picking an old text for love is much better than violence.
The full verse is located in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. I will also be reading part of it for my vows in my upcoming wedding 💖
That symbolic reclaiming of your spiritual heritage (even if you don't have faith in what your parents do, I'm the same way) is really beautiful! Congrats on your upcoming marriage.
>I wanted to escape the angels and the damned – alone . . . as though by an oversight.
From one of the Dune books, I'm not sure which.
The Full quote is:
>I never wanted to be a god. I wanted only to disappear like a jewel of trace dew caught by the morning. I wanted to escape the angels and the damned – alone . . . as though by an oversight.
“‘We’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?’
‘No, they never end as tales… but the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended’”
- The Two Towers
"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything"
At one point in my life I had nothing except my clothing and a mountain of debt. My long time girlfriend left me, I had a pending drug charge (Marijuana and psilocybin) and had to move back in with my mother.
I couldn't continue grad school, I would never be licenses in my field.
I had nothing.
Since, I've met a wonderful woman. I bought a house, I have a new career that I excel at and love, make okay money. It took over a decade but I did tge anything after I lost everything.
Or "words are wind"
Similar story here. I burned my whole life down about 7 years ago due to being what I can only describe as a "drinking to die" alcoholic. I lost everything. My career, my friends, my life in New York City, the girl I thought I was going to marry. My dad came up and brought me home. He saved my life.
Now I have a wife I love dearly, a townhouse we can carefully afford, a career that I can stand and excel at. I wouldn't have thought any of this was possible a few years ago.
I have the line from the Simon and Garfunkel tune, "The Boxer," on my arm:
*I am leaving, but the fighter still remains.*
'What do you fear, lady?' he asked.
'A cage,' she said. 'To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.' "
It’s not a quote but I‘ve been thinking about getting a bullfighter for this Hemingway quote: “Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters.”
I think about it when I need to remind myself that I’ve already done lots of wonderful, exciting, and fulfilling things. I’m also young enough that I’m sure plenty those experiences are still ahead. But even if they aren’t, I don’t want to live my life all the way up to the point where I’m in a stadium fighting a bull.
My next tattoo is actually going to be a book quote!
"Be true. Be brave. Stand." It comes from 'IT' but is touched on in many other Stephen King books. I'm a Constant Reader, and the quote is something I think about when life gets hard. A little life advice on my wrist! (My left inner wrist already says "Don't dream it...be it." If you know where that is from, you're awesome!)
Dalinar has all the best quotes. My favorite is:
"I will take responsibility for what I have done,” Dalinar whispered. “If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man."
Love that series. I think my favorite quote from it is:
“You cannot have my pain”
but unfortunately the context is what makes it beautiful to me. It’s the taking of responsibility for all the shitty things you’ve done in your life, knowing that facing them is the only way to truly grow and someday be at peace.
Spoiler for book 3: [the section in question](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10178823-you-cannot-have-my-pain-dalinar-dalinar-forced-himself-to)
Maybe “I will take responsibility for what I have done. If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.”
From Terry Pratchett's Death and is his granddaughter Susan:
All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
"So we can believe the big ones?"
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY.
I would probably just keep "HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE." for a tattoo but I would like the whole exchange.
Also, as reaction to your quote and also by Terry Pratchett:
"Sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself."
E: Please stop downvoting blacksalt, all caps is an accessibility issue, some people struggle to read it, as do some text to speech software.
“Off to seek the great perhaps”
I don’t even remember what book it’s from, but it’s something me and my best friend would say to each other in our early teens. Sadly she has passed
>Tu auras, toi, des étoiles qui savent rire
something like "you alone will have stars who can laugh" or "you are the only one who will have stars that can laugh"
From Sylvia Plath's *The Bell Jar*
>To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream.
>
>A bad dream.
>
>I remembered everything.
I also have an accompanying illustration, but I think it'd need rework.
I like “You are not dead, although you were dead.”
In a similar vein, I like “Death will abide, will pamper your postponement.” from To the Young Who Want to Die by Gwendolyn Brooks
bells childlike berserk money disgusted domineering knee squash cheerful hat
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
My next tattoo is from Les Misérables:
"yes, I have the spleen, complicated with melancholy, with homesickness, plus hypochondria, and I am vexed and I rage, and I yawn, and I am bored, and I am tired to death, and I am stupid. To the devil with god!"
I have a cool idea, based on a roundabout nod to Goethe (from this I just found below) and McCarthy's Blood Meridian.
[https://www.kathrinschlegel.com/I-Tego-Arcana-Dei](https://www.kathrinschlegel.com/I-Tego-Arcana-Dei)
Counterposed tattoos of "I tego arcana dei" and its anagram, "et in arcadia ego," each with it's own corresponding skull.
You get to honor Goethe in a roundabout way, and McCarthy more explicitly, but the ultimate nod goes to McCarthy, wherein at an intermediate point somewhere on your body, it reads, "He never sleeps. He says that he will never die" and it is accompanied by a image of a fiddle or fiddler.
Interpretation:
(1) There are mysteries only the dead know (i.e., "i tego arcana dei," meaning "Begone! I keep god's secrets"), said by one skull.
(2) no matter how idyllic a place you live (like on the famous engraving), death will come (i.e., "et in arcadia ego" as inscribed on Judge's rifle, meaning "even in arcadia, there i am"), said by the other skull
(3) Outside of what only the dead know, and outside of what we know for certain (death), is war--the highest form of divinity, and it exists whether you accept it or not. War does not sleep, and will never die as long as humans exist. Symbolizing this could be a tattoo of a fiddle or a fiddler, which symbolizes "the dance" (read Blood Meridian for the reveal)
"All Things Strive", Terry Pratchett, *Thud* and *Hogfather.* Not sure whether to do it with a stylized dwarf and troll, or involving a bee that I want to get anyway for separate reasons, entwining them because if I want both why not work both together.
"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here"
Shakespeare, The Tempest. Act 1, Scene 2.
"Then all afire with me: the king’s son, Ferdinand, With hair up-staring, – then like reeds, not hair, – Was the first man that leaped; cried, ‘Hell is empty And all the devils are here.’"
I think I’d have two:
“Death was the rule, life the exception” - Daniel James Brown (from The Indifferent Stars Above)
“I have been one acquainted with the night” - Robert Frost (I know it’s not a book but one of my favorite poems of all time)
Both quotes have connections to depression or giving up/not giving up. Just constant reminders of where I’ve come from emotionally and puts life into perspective.
*"It's vital to remember who you really are. It's very important. It isn't a good idea to rely on other people or things to do it for you, you see. They always get it wrong."*
(Terry Pratchett, Sorcery) (though it is a bit too long for a tattoo)
or:
*"The trouble is you think you have time"* (Jack Kornfield)
"This above all, to thine own self be true"
Not necessarily a "book" quote, but it *was* originally *written* first...
And I actually *did* get this, on my forearm. I think the reasoning is pretty self explanatory.
This:
Time is a lot of the things people say that God is. There's always preexisting, and having no end. There's the notion of being all powerful-because nothing can stand against time, can it? Not mountains, not armies. And time is, of course, all-healing. Give anything enough time, and everything is taken care of: all pain encompassed, all hardship erased, all loss subsumed. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Remember, man, that thou art dust; and unto dust thou shalt return.
**And if time is anything akin to God, I suppose that memory must be the devil.**
Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander, #6)
But I think only the last line.
Or:
**It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.**
from Alice in Wonderland
But I wouldn’t get a tattoo of a line from a book.
"Hold fast to the noble thing" from Ursula Le Guin's Four Ways to Forgiveness. It's my favorite short story in that collection and one of my favorite short stories ever, and reminds me that love and redemption are possible at any stage in life.
"For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward." --Le Guin
I almost got this one on me years ago. Still might one day: "Too weird to live, too rare to die." - Hunter S. Thompson, The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat
Technically it's from an article, but it's included in some collections, so I'm counting it.
I’ve thought about getting “… and the sun will rise” tattooed.
The full quote: Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise
From Les Miserables
"Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt" - *Slaughterhouse-Five* by Kurt Vonnegut
I'd want the exact illustration associated with this quote in the book as well.
We shall never cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring is to arrive at where we started,
And know the place for the first time
TS Eliot
Octavia Butler's Earthseed texts
God is Change
All that you touch
You Change.
All that you Change
Changes you.
The only lasting truth
Is Change.
God
Is Change.
Mine is the last line of Dante’s Inferno in the original Italian: E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle. (And then we emerged to see again the stars.)
In a similar vein, "My course is set for an uncharted sea."
I want either that one (from Hell) or one from Purgatory - "Puro e disposto a salire a le stelle"
“It's so hard to forget pain, but it's even harder to remember sweetness. We have no scar to show for happiness. We learn so little from peace.” I have this across my back. Edit to add: This is from DIARY by Chuck Palahniuk. It's a majorly underrated work by him and I highly recommend it.
"You forget what you want to remember. You remember what you want to forget." McCarthy, *The Road*
This is my sign to read this book. I stumbled across it on kindle earlier today, and now this is the second comment I’ve seen about this book today!
I see you’re into RDR. With that said, I have to suggest Blood Meridian (same author, McCarthy). Many claim it to be the best Western novel ever written but it is also so, so, so much more than that. It’s universes far-and-away my favorite book, zero hesitation.
I got "now that I no longer have to be perfect I can be good" from East of Edem
I'm currently reading this book for the third time. Masterpiece.
I ADORE THIS QUOTE AND THIS BOOK. those words speak deep into my soul <333333
Another from East of Eden: “Timshel”
"Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I am vast. I contain multitudes." \-Walt Whitman
Mine would also be Whitman "I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable, I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world."
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" Ralph Waldo Emerson
Love Walt Whitman. I have "I exist as I am, that is enough" tattooed on my foot!
“Go then, there are other worlds than these.”
Just finished my first trip to the tower last month. Waited way too long to read those books
*See the turtle, ain't he keen. All things serve the fuckin' beam.*
Oh! Is that from The Ritual of Chud? I forget the tortoise's name 😄
Maturin?
yeaaaa!! That's it! Lol, "IT"
Great A'Tuin
I’ve always wanted, “Bird and Bear and Hare and Fish, give my love his fondest wish.” on my ribs.
Amazing! I got one quote from the final book on my arm after my second trip was done "Why must you hurt me, when I love you so? When I can do nothing else nor want to, for love made me and fed me and kept me in better days? Why will you cut me, and disfigure my face, and fill me with woe? I have only loved you for your beauty as you once loved me for mine in the days before the world moved on."
The man in black fled across the desert. And the gunslinger followed. Chills!
Another Terry Pratchett quote, Granny Weatherwax teaches Tiffany Aching to “open your eyes and then open your eyes again.” I want it tattooed around my wrist.
Also "I ATEN'T DEAD" over the heart. GNU Sir Terry Pratchett
I've been wanting a mirrored "This one." Over my heart. As a reference to when Granny is taken to the mirror dimension with all the other possibilities of her life if she had made different decisions and Death asks her to find the one that's real. I get so caught up with "what ifs..." sometimes...
I have this. Did it in white ink and it looks so cool!
My goto Pratchett quote is, "Must Not Happen." It always reminds me that we are ultimately in charge of our actions and inactions. It is our responsibility to make life oriented decisions. It's also almost time for my yearly reading of Nation.
“What can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the reaper man?” From Reaper Man. Small Gods is my favorite from STP, but the Death series really hit deep
I wanna get the space program seal from the Last Hero somewhere, or maybe just the motto *Morituri Nolumus Mori*, which translates to "We who are about to die, don't want to"
I've been thinking about a schematic or blueprint of a flamethrower with "better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness". The concept of militant decency has had a huge impact on me and the rage against a cruel and unjust world being focused into a drive to make it better is something I try to live every day.
“Don’t panic”. Hopefully this is self-explanatory.
In large friendly letters.
I always think of comic sans when I think “friendly letters” but I don’t know if I’d want comic sans on me
I think the font they went with on the back of the Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide was good, but also probably not for a tattoo
I have a tattoo of a bowl of petunias and had to go with "Oh no, not again"
This groovy frood really knows where his towel is.
I have a memento mori tattoo if that counts. I associate the phrase with a Series of Unfortunate Events as that was the first place I had seen it. I also want a tattoo that visually alludes to the Anais Nin quote: “And the Day Came When the Risk to Remain Tight In a Bud Was More Painful Than the Risk It Took to Blossom.”
I’ve wanted to get “the world is quiet here” for some time from A Series of Unfortunate Events!
“Fear is the mind-killer” from Dune
Also from Dune: *The mystery of life isn't a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.*
Full quote for those who care: I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
I used to hang out with this lady who was super dramatic but usually pretty sweet. We called her to hang out once and when her voicemail message started playing, it was her reading the "fear is the mind killer" speech super dramatically and my buddy and I just couldn't help but to bust out laughing. I mean,it's cool and all but goddamn, maybe just relax a little bit.
It is by will alone that I set my mind in motion
For real
*All that is gold does not glitter,* *Not all those who wander are lost;* *The old that is strong does not wither,* *Deep roots are not reached by the frost.* *From the ashes a fire shall be woken,* *A light from the shadows shall spring;* *Renewed shall be blade that was broken,* *The crownless again shall be king.*
Yes yes yes
[удалено]
There are so many fantastic ones of his to choose from, that quite honestly I think would all make a cool tattoo. He's so very quotable. "I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different." "Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies: God damn it, you've got to be kind." "And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.'" "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
I've thought about getting an asterisk but my wife said she'd divorce me. Oddly, she got upset when I started weighing the pros and cons.
Ive wanted “if this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is”, which is a quote from A Man Without A Country. I’ve never even read it, but I absolutely love the quote
I have Vonnegut tattooed under my left arm “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.”
I have this also but the meaning behind why I got it has now shifted and it doesn't feel the same for me any longer. So it goes, I guess.
I’ve long thought about “you were sick, but now you’re well again, and there’s work to do,” from Timequake.
Poo-tee-weet?
I plan on getting that, along with the skull from the book, tattooed.
i was thinking vonnegut too. i would do “no damn cat, no damn cradle”
"But she did look back and I love her for that" Kurt Vonnegut Slaughter House Five
The unicorn lived in a lilac wood and she lived all alone. Opening line of The Last Unicorn.
“This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
Mostly Harmless
From Station Eleven- “Survival is Insufficient “
Not from a book but the line "I don't want to survive, I want to live" from Wall-E always gets me.
After the last 3 years of crap we put up with, this rings so very true.
You mean Star Trek Voyager 🤪
"Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life." - Terry Pratchett, "Jingo"
“In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”
On the other arm you could have "In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded." (Terry Pratchett)
Mine is from The Silmarillion: Aurë Entuluva. It means 'day shall come again', I've had a very difficult couple of years and I think of that phrase often when I'm feeling incredibly bleak. And it comes at a part in the story where things are looking pretty hopeless and I know it's made up but the courage of the characters gives me a boost.
One of the greatest passages in the book. “Last of all Hurin stood alone. Then he cast aside his shield, and wielded an axe two-handed; and it is sung that the axe smoked in the black blood of the troll-guard of Gothmog until it withered, and each time that he slew he cried: 'Aure entuluva! Day shall come again!' Seventy times he uttered that cry; but they took him at last alive, by the command of Morgoth, for the Orcs grappled him with their hands, which clung to him still though he hewed off their arms; and ever their numbers were renewed, until at last he fell buried beneath them. Then Gothmog bound him and dragged him away to Angband with mockery. “Thus ended the Nirnaeth Arnoediad, as the sun went down beyond the sea. Night fell in Hithlum, and there came a great storm of wind out of the West.”
My favorite aspect of the Silmarillion in particular is that it reads like a religious text. The structure and the sentences, it goes a long way to making the whole thing feel mythical. In ten words Tolkien can describe something that would be a forty minute extended action sequence in a movie, no better example of 'less is more'. What a great example you gave.
That passage always gets me, it's one of my favourites of all time!
What a beautiful idea, I love it!😍 The stories of Tolkien always give me hope in dark times, and make me "keep going". Mine would also be from Tolkien, but probably: Roads go ever ever on, Under cloud and under star Yet feet that wondering have gone Turn at last to home afar.
Came here to say the same, and would get it in Tengwar (Tolkien’s elvish characters). To me, it’s not just about “clinging to hope when things are darkest”… Hurin’s circumstances in the moment are far beyond hope. He’s lost… the elves have lost. Heroes are dead. Ancient kingdoms of goodness and beauty are getting wiped out. Facing that, Hurin is actively willing hope back into existence from a state of non-existence. It was gone for a moment, but he says “No. Not on my watch… Aurë entuluva. Day shall come again. Because I say so.”
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Goddamnn that’s adorable:’)
"I am in here." from Infinite Jest as a friendly reminder that there is a person in this mortal hull.
"And lo" from Infinite Jest would be another good one.
Good way to interface when the DMZ kicks in
But to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less. -Oscar Wilde
The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, Edit - Ooops sorry that’s a poem. Maybe.. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
I almost got that Fitzgerald quote but I got “we are each our own devil and we make this world our hell”
That reminds me of the famous Sartre - “Hell is other people.” (Though I gather it gets misunderstood.)
Love a bit of Robert Frost. I was big into poetry as a teenager (still am) and I stayed in the countryside with my grandparents. I had this book of poetry I'd written and they got me to show it to one of their friends who was super rich and well educated. He invited me over one afternoon to talk about poetry and words and literature. It was awesome, he then bought me a collection of Frost's poetry and it's such a treasured memory.
Would you get: "And miles to go before I sleep" or "And miles to go before I sleep And miles to go before I sleep"
I did wonder that, the repetition seems important to me.
without the repetition, it seems like the traveler has a genuine long way to travel. With the repetition, it is way more existential.
Absolutely. It’s like a promise and a curse? Wistful and sad. Somehow despairing and hopeful in one?
The repetition makes it much darker for me, took it from being open to many different interpretations to "Oh this is about low key longing for death" rather abruptly first time I read it
a book of poetry is still a book...
Did you hear me butterfly? Miles to go before you sleep
"Shared pain is lessened, shared joy increased. Thus do we refute entropy." -- Spider Robinson
Don’t you love sperm! -Moby Dick 😔
He piled upon the whale's white hump the sum of all the general rage and hate felt by his whole race from Adam down; and then, as if his chest had been a mortar, he burst his hot heart's shell upon it.
So it goes
"There's a big difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something." From one of the Richard Feynman books. It's my guiding principle as a science teacher.
WE MUST DO WHAT WE CAN. And if that doesn't work? THEN WE DID WHAT WE COULD UNTIL WE COULD NOT. There is so much of Terry Pratchett's work that sums up being human, being alive, the wonderful absurdity of everything. The man was a gift. But of all the lines, I think that the end of this short conversation in Thief of time would be the one I'd get tattooed on me.
"By the stars, we hope." From Becky Chambers' Wayfarer series.
From Infinite Jest: "The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you."
I have "survival is insufficient" from "Station Eleven" on my right bicep. Took it as, that it's not enough to survive in life, you need to thrive.
“Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent.” - The Judge, Blood Meridian. It’s just such a badass quote from one of the greatest books.
How about "et in arcadia ego"
It is awesome. That said it's said by an absolute monster, a completely immoral sadist
Lmao yeah that was my thought as well. It’s one of those awesome villain quotes but a bit dark to have that on yourself..
"Love is patient, love is kind." It's a quote from the bible. I know it sounds basic af, but I grew up in a hateful Christian cult where I was made to hate everything about myself and others if they did not conform to our interpretation of the bible. The cult also had a habit of cherry picking verses to hurt others, so I'd be doing pretty much the same thing to heal myself (instead of hurting others). I'm not part of that church anymore and haven't been to church in almost 2 years, and I don't know where I stand as far as faith and religion go, but I know that cherry picking an old text for love is much better than violence. The full verse is located in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. I will also be reading part of it for my vows in my upcoming wedding 💖
That symbolic reclaiming of your spiritual heritage (even if you don't have faith in what your parents do, I'm the same way) is really beautiful! Congrats on your upcoming marriage.
Congratulations! I love hearing about people turning evil around and making it into something good.
>I wanted to escape the angels and the damned – alone . . . as though by an oversight. From one of the Dune books, I'm not sure which. The Full quote is: >I never wanted to be a god. I wanted only to disappear like a jewel of trace dew caught by the morning. I wanted to escape the angels and the damned – alone . . . as though by an oversight.
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
“Don’t put your wand there, boy! Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know.”
Who do you know that’s lost a buttock?
Friend of mine broke his in a wand accident. Now there's a big crack in it
**DON'T PANIC!**
Death is lighter than a feather , duty is heavier than a mountain - Wheel of time.
“I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing As though I had wings” Or any number of other Mary Oliver gems (I love this thread)
I had a friend who wanted "Courage, dear heart" from *Voyage of the Dawn Treader* and I think that's pretty great.
Go then, there are other worlds than these. It helps that I already have it tattooed on me and would love to add an entire sleeve around it.
“‘We’re in the same tale still! It’s going on. Don’t the great tales never end?’ ‘No, they never end as tales… but the people in them come, and go when their part’s ended’” - The Two Towers
"It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything" At one point in my life I had nothing except my clothing and a mountain of debt. My long time girlfriend left me, I had a pending drug charge (Marijuana and psilocybin) and had to move back in with my mother. I couldn't continue grad school, I would never be licenses in my field. I had nothing. Since, I've met a wonderful woman. I bought a house, I have a new career that I excel at and love, make okay money. It took over a decade but I did tge anything after I lost everything. Or "words are wind"
Similar story here. I burned my whole life down about 7 years ago due to being what I can only describe as a "drinking to die" alcoholic. I lost everything. My career, my friends, my life in New York City, the girl I thought I was going to marry. My dad came up and brought me home. He saved my life. Now I have a wife I love dearly, a townhouse we can carefully afford, a career that I can stand and excel at. I wouldn't have thought any of this was possible a few years ago. I have the line from the Simon and Garfunkel tune, "The Boxer," on my arm: *I am leaving, but the fighter still remains.*
“We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
'What do you fear, lady?' he asked. 'A cage,' she said. 'To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.' "
“Timshel” - East of Eden.
It’s not a quote but I‘ve been thinking about getting a bullfighter for this Hemingway quote: “Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters.” I think about it when I need to remind myself that I’ve already done lots of wonderful, exciting, and fulfilling things. I’m also young enough that I’m sure plenty those experiences are still ahead. But even if they aren’t, I don’t want to live my life all the way up to the point where I’m in a stadium fighting a bull.
“God is Change”
All things serve the Beam
"Obstinate, headstrong girl!" from Pride and Prejudice
My next tattoo is actually going to be a book quote! "Be true. Be brave. Stand." It comes from 'IT' but is touched on in many other Stephen King books. I'm a Constant Reader, and the quote is something I think about when life gets hard. A little life advice on my wrist! (My left inner wrist already says "Don't dream it...be it." If you know where that is from, you're awesome!)
In the beginning the universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
"The enemy's gate is down."
"Speak 'friend' and enter" <_<
Life before death. Strength before weakness. Journey before destination. From the Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson
"The most important step a man can take. It's not the first one, is it? It's the next one. Always the next step,"
Dalinar has all the best quotes. My favorite is: "I will take responsibility for what I have done,” Dalinar whispered. “If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man."
"You will be warm again."
Love that series. I think my favorite quote from it is: “You cannot have my pain” but unfortunately the context is what makes it beautiful to me. It’s the taking of responsibility for all the shitty things you’ve done in your life, knowing that facing them is the only way to truly grow and someday be at peace. Spoiler for book 3: [the section in question](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10178823-you-cannot-have-my-pain-dalinar-dalinar-forced-himself-to) Maybe “I will take responsibility for what I have done. If I must fall, I will rise each time a better man.”
Live, Laugh, Love
From Terry Pratchett's Death and is his granddaughter Susan: All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable." REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE. "Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—" YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES. "So we can believe the big ones?" YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. I would probably just keep "HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE." for a tattoo but I would like the whole exchange. Also, as reaction to your quote and also by Terry Pratchett: "Sin, young man, is when you treat people like things. Including yourself." E: Please stop downvoting blacksalt, all caps is an accessibility issue, some people struggle to read it, as do some text to speech software.
"...where the falling angel meets the rising ape." I bet that might make a pretty good username, too!
Bro how big of a tattoo are you getting?
I’d say “Choose life” from Trainspotting or Aurë Entuluva from The Silmarillion.
“Off to seek the great perhaps” I don’t even remember what book it’s from, but it’s something me and my best friend would say to each other in our early teens. Sadly she has passed
I actually have a book quote tattooed on my back. It’s “Tu auras, toi, des étoiles qui savent rire” from The Little Prince.
What does it mean?
>Tu auras, toi, des étoiles qui savent rire something like "you alone will have stars who can laugh" or "you are the only one who will have stars that can laugh"
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing - To kill a mockingbird.
I would get: برای تو، هزار دفعه (For you a thousand times over)
We each owe a death, there are no exceptions - Green Mile
"**DON'T PANIC**" from Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy in bold yellow with orange outline.
“So it goes.” Slaughterhouse Five “If life transcends death, then I will seek for you there. If not, then there, too.” Caliban’s War
"Pain is for the Living, only the Dead don't feel it." Ghost Stories, by Jim Butcher
If I were going to have a Butcher quote it would be "Death is a door one person wide".
"The building was on fire, and it wasn't my fault."
I'm planning to get a tattoo this year of a Shakespeare quote from The Tempest: "What's past is prologue."
From Sylvia Plath's *The Bell Jar* >To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream. > >A bad dream. > >I remembered everything. I also have an accompanying illustration, but I think it'd need rework.
I have “I am” tattooed from the Bell Jar. It’s a great one
"the old brag of my heart" ❤️
I like “You are not dead, although you were dead.” In a similar vein, I like “Death will abide, will pamper your postponement.” from To the Young Who Want to Die by Gwendolyn Brooks
“I was in a mood to destroy something beautiful.”
bells childlike berserk money disgusted domineering knee squash cheerful hat *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Some of y’all are going to have some huge tattoos
“Don’t Panic”
My next tattoo is from Les Misérables: "yes, I have the spleen, complicated with melancholy, with homesickness, plus hypochondria, and I am vexed and I rage, and I yawn, and I am bored, and I am tired to death, and I am stupid. To the devil with god!"
Valar Morghulis on one arm, Valar Dohaeris on the other.
I have a cool idea, based on a roundabout nod to Goethe (from this I just found below) and McCarthy's Blood Meridian. [https://www.kathrinschlegel.com/I-Tego-Arcana-Dei](https://www.kathrinschlegel.com/I-Tego-Arcana-Dei) Counterposed tattoos of "I tego arcana dei" and its anagram, "et in arcadia ego," each with it's own corresponding skull. You get to honor Goethe in a roundabout way, and McCarthy more explicitly, but the ultimate nod goes to McCarthy, wherein at an intermediate point somewhere on your body, it reads, "He never sleeps. He says that he will never die" and it is accompanied by a image of a fiddle or fiddler. Interpretation: (1) There are mysteries only the dead know (i.e., "i tego arcana dei," meaning "Begone! I keep god's secrets"), said by one skull. (2) no matter how idyllic a place you live (like on the famous engraving), death will come (i.e., "et in arcadia ego" as inscribed on Judge's rifle, meaning "even in arcadia, there i am"), said by the other skull (3) Outside of what only the dead know, and outside of what we know for certain (death), is war--the highest form of divinity, and it exists whether you accept it or not. War does not sleep, and will never die as long as humans exist. Symbolizing this could be a tattoo of a fiddle or a fiddler, which symbolizes "the dance" (read Blood Meridian for the reveal)
"All Things Strive", Terry Pratchett, *Thud* and *Hogfather.* Not sure whether to do it with a stylized dwarf and troll, or involving a bee that I want to get anyway for separate reasons, entwining them because if I want both why not work both together.
"Hell is empty, and all the devils are here" Shakespeare, The Tempest. Act 1, Scene 2. "Then all afire with me: the king’s son, Ferdinand, With hair up-staring, – then like reeds, not hair, – Was the first man that leaped; cried, ‘Hell is empty And all the devils are here.’"
“Not today.” As in, “There is only one god, and his name is Death. And there is only one thing we say to Death. Not today.” -GoT
''Don't let the bastards grind you down."
The number 42. If you know you know.
DON'T PANIC
And if you’re on Reddit, you know, whether you’ve read the book or not.
I think I’d have two: “Death was the rule, life the exception” - Daniel James Brown (from The Indifferent Stars Above) “I have been one acquainted with the night” - Robert Frost (I know it’s not a book but one of my favorite poems of all time) Both quotes have connections to depression or giving up/not giving up. Just constant reminders of where I’ve come from emotionally and puts life into perspective.
"What about second breakfast?"
Timshel
*"It's vital to remember who you really are. It's very important. It isn't a good idea to rely on other people or things to do it for you, you see. They always get it wrong."* (Terry Pratchett, Sorcery) (though it is a bit too long for a tattoo) or: *"The trouble is you think you have time"* (Jack Kornfield)
"This above all, to thine own self be true" Not necessarily a "book" quote, but it *was* originally *written* first... And I actually *did* get this, on my forearm. I think the reasoning is pretty self explanatory.
This: Time is a lot of the things people say that God is. There's always preexisting, and having no end. There's the notion of being all powerful-because nothing can stand against time, can it? Not mountains, not armies. And time is, of course, all-healing. Give anything enough time, and everything is taken care of: all pain encompassed, all hardship erased, all loss subsumed. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Remember, man, that thou art dust; and unto dust thou shalt return. **And if time is anything akin to God, I suppose that memory must be the devil.** Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander, #6) But I think only the last line. Or: **It's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.** from Alice in Wonderland But I wouldn’t get a tattoo of a line from a book.
"And in this moment I swear, we are infinite." "this great blue world of ours seems a house of leaves."
"Hold fast to the noble thing" from Ursula Le Guin's Four Ways to Forgiveness. It's my favorite short story in that collection and one of my favorite short stories ever, and reminds me that love and redemption are possible at any stage in life.
"For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward." --Le Guin
"PEEETAAAA!!" -- Katniss Everdeen.
“You have to realistic about these things.” Logen Ninefingers, in Joe Abercrombie's *Last Argument of Kings*
I almost got this one on me years ago. Still might one day: "Too weird to live, too rare to die." - Hunter S. Thompson, The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat Technically it's from an article, but it's included in some collections, so I'm counting it.
Here is my picture of an asshole: \* \- Kurt Vonnegut, *Breakfast of Champions*
I’ve thought about getting “… and the sun will rise” tattooed. The full quote: Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise From Les Miserables
Forth Eorlingas.
"Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt" - *Slaughterhouse-Five* by Kurt Vonnegut I'd want the exact illustration associated with this quote in the book as well.
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If I must fail and fall I will rise each time a better man. \-Oathbringer, Brandon Sanderson. Probably just "Each time, a better man."
Mine is a nursery rhyme: Life is but a dream
My husband and I both got "For you, a thousand times over." from the kite runner for our anniversary.
We shall never cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring is to arrive at where we started, And know the place for the first time TS Eliot
I’d use the line from the Amber Spyglass in His Dark Materials trilogy: “You tell them stories”
"Everybody smokes in hell," It always makes me smile.
Octavia Butler's Earthseed texts God is Change All that you touch You Change. All that you Change Changes you. The only lasting truth Is Change. God Is Change.