Цитаты из аудиокниги «История твоей жизни (сборник)», страница 12

For most of its inhabitants, Hell is not that different from Earth; its principal punishment is the regret of not having loved God enough when alive, and for many that's easily endured.

A female with viable ova remains a single organism, while a male with viable spermatozoa is actually many organisms: a father and all his potential children.

He means the Word: the sentence that, when uttered, would destroy the mind of the listener. Reynolds is claiming that the myth is true, that every mind has such a trigger built in; that for every person, there is a sentence that can reduce him to an idiot, a lunatic, a catatonic. And he is claiming he knows the one for me.

"If we give our gift first, will the value of our gift influence the value of theirs?”

"No,” I said. “As far as we can tell, the value of the exchanged items is irrelevant."

"If only my relatives felt that way,” murmured Gary wryly.

But language wasn't only for communication: it was also a form of action. According to speech act theory, statements like “You're under arrest,” “I christen this vessel,” or “I promise” were all performative: a speaker could perform the action only by uttering the words. For such acts, knowing what would be said didn't change anything. Everyone at a wedding anticipated the words “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” but until the minister actually said them, the ceremony didn't count. With performative language, saying equaled doing.

The word “infant” is derived from the Latin word for “unable to speak,” but you'll be perfectly capable of saying one thing: “I suffer,” and you'll do it tirelessly and without hesitation.

Идет женщина в мантии деланной утонченности, но эта мантия соскальзывает при встрече с реальностью.

Лично мне кажется утешительным в Книге Иова то, что в конце Бог вознаграждает Иова. Оставим в стороне вопрос, могут ли новые дети возместить потерю тех, что были, но почему вообще Бог восстановил состояние Иова? Зачем такой хеппи-энд? Одна из главных идей Книги Иова в том, что добродетель вознаграждается не всегда и с хорошими людьми случается плохое. Иов в конце с этим смиряется, проявляет добродетель — и за это вознаграждается. Не подрывает ли это сам смысл Книги? Мне кажется, что Книге Иова не хватило смелости пойти до конца: если бы автор был по-настоящему привержен идее, что добродетель вознаграждается не всегда, не кончилась бы Книга тем, что Иов по-прежнему нищ, наг и бездомен?

For him the mystery was solved, because he understood that everything in life is love, even pain, especially pain.So minutes later, when Neil finally bled to death, he was truly worthy of salvation.And God sent him to Hell anyway.

In public Neil was able to mask his grief as adults are expected to, but in the privacy of his apartment, the floodgates of emotion burst open. The awareness of Sarah's absence would overwhelm him, and then he'd collapse on the floor and weep. He'd curl up into a ball, his body racked by hiccuping sobs, tears and mucus streaming down his face, the anguish coming in ever-increasing waves until it was more than he could bear, more intense than he'd have believed possible. Minutes or hours later it would leave, and he would fall asleep, exhausted. And the next morning he would wake up and face the prospect of another day without Sarah.