Quotes About Tension

I will not deny, however, that in the course of the journey, he sometimes stopped at the edge of a meadow, at the entrance to a forest, to gather some herb (always the same one, I believe): and he would then chew it with an absorbed look. He kept some of it with him, and ate it in the moments of greatest tension (and we had a number of them at the abbey!).

When your true enemies are too strong, you have to choose weaker enemies.

Why do I feel as if I'm about to hear a sentence passed?' 'Why do you feel as if you should?

The name hung between them like a motionless pendulum, waiting for a push to set it in motion.

become antsy

The law fights against life, and life fights against the law.

I've never known a tranquil atheist. Don't they always look like they just sat on a tack?

What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.

Who goes there? At the same time, the click of guns, as they were lowered into position, was heard. Enjolras replied in a haughty and vibrating tone:— The French Revolution!

It combined corrupt simplicity with delicate ferocity, a curious variety of civilization; a tiger with a simper.

Nothing oppresses the heart like symmetry.

An undercurrent of war was rumbling within her.

Mama gave a tired laugh. Leni understood. You could be as careful as a chemist with nitroglycerin around dad. It wouldn't change a thing. Sooner or later, he was going to blow.

Dad held Mama as if she were made of glass. So careful, so concerned for her well-being. It filled Leni with an impotent rage. And then she'd get a glimpse of him with tears in his eyes and the rage would turn soft and slide into something like forgiveness. She didn't know how to corral or change either of these emotions; her love for him was all tangled up in hate. Right now she felt both emotions crowding in on her, each jostling for the lead.

daughter had had a way of saying things that rubbed Nora the wrong way. More often than not, they both ended up saying something they regretted.

They were at it again. Arguing. Shouting.

As far as Leni could tell, adults were edgy in general, and no wonder.

Go to your room," Vianne said to Sophie. Whatever Isabelle was going to say, she didn't want Sophie to hear. Vianne eased the hat from her head and set down her empty basket. Her hands were shaking.

Isabelle couldn't look away. She was angry at him—she knew that, felt it—but as he came toward her, that anger dried up and blew away like dust beneath the longing that mattered so much more. Their gazes met, held; and then he was past her, reaching for the doorknob, going outside. The door clicked shut behind him.

tempers caught fire as easily as backyards.

All anyone could talk about was the gloomy future and the shocking present.

saw Mama standing there terrified, nearly in tears, and Leni saw him pull himself from the brink of rage. She'd never seen a man do it before.

You could always tell when Dad was gone. Everything was easier and more relaxed in his absence.

A German walked up to her, his rifle