If overconfidence can cause the Roman Empire to fall, I ought to be able to get a ground ball.
The 500 years following the fall of the Western Roman Empire were dubbed by the poet Petrarch 'dark.' Although the 14th-century Italian was referring to a literary decline, the term caught on to denote the seemingly backward turn the Western world took with regard to religious and technological developments.
Anger is like those ruins which smash themselves on what they fall.
So easy to fall into a rut, isn't it? Why should ruts be so comfortable and so unpopular?
We all fall into our habits, our routines, our ruts. They're used quite often, consciously or unconsciously, to avoid living, to avoid doing the messy part of having relationships with other people, of dealing with a person next to us. That's why we can all be in a room on our cell phones and not have to deal with one another.
There's no doubt that what has emerged in the years after 9/11, unlike the situation in Britain, there were practices sanctioned in the U.S. that fall far below the standard of conduct that should have taken place. It is for the American system of government, in all of its branches, to address that. It is not for a British politician.
The Fall was super powerful to me because of their covers. They were intimidating. I bought 'This Nation's Saving Grace' when it came out in 1985, and there was something about it that made me nervous. It terrified me.
How wonderful it would be to scatter words as they rise to consciousness, to let them lie where they fall.
I would say that most of my books are contemporary realistic fiction... a couple, maybe three, fall into the 'historic fiction' category. Science fiction is not a favorite genre of mine, though I have greatly enjoyed some of the work of Ursula LeGuin. I haven't read much science fiction so I don't know other sci-fi authors.
Scorpio Island, everyone calls it - they say if you fall in love in Ibiza, then it lasts forever.
It is funny how it is almost more painful to fall over and scrape your knee than to be blown up. Your body goes into incredible protection mode.
The most successful of the nations of the world are those who do not fall into the lure of secession but who, through thick and thin, forge unity in diversity.
What a terrible thing it would be to be the Pope! What unthinkable responsibilities to fall on your shoulders at an advanced age! No privacy. No seclusion. No sin.
The English expression 'to fall asleep' is apt because the transition between waking and sleeping is a gradual drop from one state of being into another: a giving up of full self-consciousness for unconsciousness or for the altered consciousness of dreams.
You either listen to the naysayers and fall into the pit of self-loathing, or you stay on the path and move forward.
If you're not careful, you can fall into a destructive cycle of self-pity.
Chez Panisse is a sensory temple - you might have to be made of stone not to fall for it.
We are separated from God on two sides; the Fall separates us from Him, the Tree of Life separates Him from us.
I did wreck a running machine once at Seville. I was only supposed to be doing 12 minutes, but I went on for 15, and it suddenly packed in. I had to hang on to the side to make sure I didn't fall.
The rise or fall of Shanghai means the birth or death of the whole nation.
