repetition Quotes

“We become what we repeatedly do.”

“I have to see a thing a thousand times before I see it once.”

“Swish, click. Before you knew it, she’d be back. Click, swish, “Checks,” swish, click. It never stopped, even at night; it was our lullaby. It was our metronome, our pulse. It was our lives measured out in doses slightly larger than those famous coffee spoons. Soup spoons, maybe? Dented tin spoons brimming with what should have been sweet but was sour, gone off, gone by without our savoring it: our lives.”

“As we age, we become our parents; live long enough and we see faces repeat in time.”

“The Counsellor, who was present, had prepared an answer, and had resolved to resume all I had said, according to the formality of a debate, in which things are generally repeated more faithfully than they are answered, as if the chief trial to be made were of men’s memories.”

“It’s important that you know. Our family memory must not be lost.”

“Off again! On again! In again! Out again!”

“That was the only tape we had, so we played it constantly, over and over, as a kind of demented counterpoint to the radio. And also to maintain our rhythm on the road. A constant speed is good for gas mileage- and for some reason that seemed important at the time. Indeed. On a trip like this one must be careful about gas consumption. Avoid those quick bursts of acceleration that drag blood to the back of the brain.”

“You can take pretty much any sentence in this book and if you read it enough times, you will probably end up committing a homicide.”

“You have to read a book three times before you know it. The first time you read it for the story. The plot. The movement from scene to scene that gives the book its momentum, its rhythm.”

“Where’s the glory in repeating what others have done?”

“All of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.”

“Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata. Shantih shantih shantih.”

“You can tickle my feet. You can shake my bed. You can pure cold water on my head. But you’re wasting your time. So go away. I am NOT going to get up today.”

“An island can be dreadful for someone from outside. Everything is complete, and everyone has his obstinate, sure and self-sufficient place. Within their shores, everything functions according to rituals that are as hard as rock from repetition, and at the same time they amble through their days as whimsically and casually as if the world ended at the horizon.”

“Would you rather live one perfect day over and over or live your life with no perfect days but just decent ones?”