Quotes About Familiarity

To reverse Arthur C. Clarke's famous adage about magic, any sufficiently familiar technology is indistinguishable from nature.

When two people have been married for years they seem to become unconscious of each other's bodily presence so that they move as if alone, speak aloud things which they do not expect to be answered, and in general seem to experience all the comfort of solitude without its loneliness.

We are all swept on by the torrent of things grown so familiar that they cast no shade...

I know this room too well - this view too well - I am getting it all out of focus, because I can't walk through it.

for there was neither pride nor regret in his tone; indeed it kept its level note, as of one who tells a tale so well known that the words have been rubbed smooth of meaning.

The amusing thing about coming back to England [...] was the way it made [...] things stand out as if one had never seen them before [...]. Never had he seen London look so enchanting [...].

Penetrating the familiar is by no means a given. On the contrary, it is hard work.

It's happened before. It's all happened before. History is worth shit.

Since longtime members who switch services don't like to be asked if they're visiting (try it; you'll enjoy the dirty looks), most of us learn to treat anyone we don't recognize as a regular we haven't met or someone whose face we can't remember.

How long, I wonder, does it take a thing or a place or even a person to feel like home?

Does not a child recognize her own mother?

Every girl on the planet was familiar to one-last-time e-mail checks.

I have said the word mother to myself so many times it is starting to lose its shock. [...] Repeat any word enough and it will cease to alarm you. Mother mother mother mother . Slowly, so slowly, I am growing used to its weight on the tip of my tongue, its echo and its shape.

Although this was his first visit to Brazil, Magellan was familiar with the brilliantly evocative descriptions

an employee's relationship—by blood, marriage or acquaintance—with a person above him in the hierarchy.

I have undertaken, you see, to write not only my life, but my opinions also; hoping and expecting that your knowledge of my character, and of what kind of a mortal I am, by the one, would give you a better relish for the other: As you proceed further with me, the slight acquaintance which is now beginning betwixt us, will grow into familiarity; and that, unless one of us is in fault, will terminate in friendship.

Years might pass and they might change, both of them, but she was sure she would still know her own child, just as she would know herself, no matter how long it had been. She was certain of this. She would spend months, years, the rest of her life looking for her daughter, searching the face of every young woman she meet for as long as it took, searching for a spark of familiarity in the faces of strangers.

Moody would never remember crossing the street, or propping his bike in the front walkway, or introducing himself. So it would feel to him that he had always known her name, and that she had always known his, that somehow, he and Pearl had known each other always.

Searching for a spark of familiarity in the faces of strangers

Era impossível equivocar-se. Reconheceu-o de imediato: amor, uma adoração não correspondida que saltava mas não ressaltava; amor cauteloso e plácido que não se importava e prosseguia de qualquer forma. Era demasiado familiar para a surpreender. De dentro dela, algo se esticou e envolveu Jack como um xaile, mas ele não reparou.

Mentre aspettavo mi guardavo intorno: l'intonaco scabro nella luce, un ciuffo d'erba sul terrazzo contro il cielo, il gran silenzio meridiano. Nello strepito del carro che s'allontanava, pensai che quelli per Oreste erano luoghi familiari, c'era nato e cresciuto, dovevano dirgli chi sa che. Pensai quanti luoghi ci sono nel mondo che appartengono così a qualcuno, che qualcuno ha nel sangue e nessun altro li sa.

Un passato deve essere tanto familiare da poterlo rivivere meccanicamente e tanto inaspettato da farci stupire ogni volta che vi ritorniamo: allora è adatto alla fantasia.

A book is to me like a hat or coat — a very uncomfortable thing until the newness has been worn off.

"You must love this place very much," said Miss Fenn... "So many homes are like twenty others. But this is unique, and you seem to know every cranny of it. I dare say you could never love another home so well." "Oh, I carry it with me," said Deronda... "To most men their early home is no more than a memory of their early years... The image is never marred. There's no disappointment in memory, and one's exaggerations are always on the good side."