Alessandro sat up straight. How is it you think babies are born? Something the mother and father do before sex, some sort of cloth or herb or hard-boiled egg that the father puts in the mother or something, with a rubber bulb and a glass dish. No, Alessandro said. That's not quite it. No? No. You just have to have sex-if you're married, fifty times; if you're not married, once. You're kidding!
Mark Helprin A Soldier of the Great...
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In the conversation, Alessandro addresses a common misconception about the process of childbirth, challenging simplistic or magical ideas about how babies come into the world. He humorously dismisses various odd theories involving objects or rituals, revealing a deeper understanding of human reproduction. This exchange reflects both ignorance and curiosity about a natural aspect of life.

Through his straightforward explanation, Alessandro points out the basic truth that sexual intercourse is directly tied to the conception of a child. The playfulness in his dialogue illustrates the contrast between innocence and the reality of adult relationships. His insights on marriage and intimacy highlight societal norms while revealing the wonder and mystery surrounding the origins of life.

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A Soldier of the Great...
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Other quotes in A Soldier of the Great War

There are times for sleep, for inactivity, dreaming, indiscipline, even lethargy. You'll know when you deserve these times. They come after you've been broken. I'm speaking of a helpless, tranquil state before the great excitement of dawn.
Mark Helprin A Soldier of the Great...
There are times for sleep, for inactivity, dreaming, indiscipline, even lethargy. You'll know when you deserve these times. They come after you've been broken. I'm speaking of a helpless, tranquil state before the great excitement of dawn.
Civilians seldom understand that soldiers, once impressed into war, will forever take it for the ordinary state of the world, with all else illusion. The former soldier assumes that when time weakens the dream of civilian life and its supports pull away, he will revert to the one state that will always hold his heart. He dreams of war and remembers it in quiet times when he might otherwise devote himself to different things, and he is ruined for the peace. What he has seen is as powerful and mysterious as death itself, and yet he has not died, and he wonders why.
Mark Helprin A Soldier of the Great...
Civilians seldom understand that soldiers, once impressed into war, will forever take it for the ordinary state of the world, with all else illusion. The former soldier assumes that when time weakens the dream of civilian life and its supports pull away, he will revert to the one state that will always hold his heart. He dreams of war and remembers it in quiet times when he might otherwise devote himself to different things, and he is ruined for the peace. What he has seen is as powerful and mysterious as death itself, and yet he has not died, and he wonders why.
Your materialism will make you suffer terribly not only at the end but also on the way.
Mark Helprin A Soldier of the Great...
Your materialism will make you suffer terribly not only at the end but also on the way.
I've had a profession for a number of years, and it has mastered me. A profession is like a great snake that wraps itself around you. Once you are enwrapped, you are in a slow fight for the rest of your life, and the lightness of youth leaves you. You don't have time, for example, to think about the city even as you are walking through it.
Mark Helprin A Soldier of the Great...
I've had a profession for a number of years, and it has mastered me. A profession is like a great snake that wraps itself around you. Once you are enwrapped, you are in a slow fight for the rest of your life, and the lightness of youth leaves you. You don't have time, for example, to think about the city even as you are walking through it.
I can tell you only that beauty cannot be expressed or explained in a theory or an idea, that it moves by its own law, that it is God's way of comforting His broken children.
Mark Helprin A Soldier of the Great...
I can tell you only that beauty cannot be expressed or explained in a theory or an idea, that it moves by its own law, that it is God's way of comforting His broken children.
His existence is not a question of argument but of apprehension. Either you apprehend God, or you do not.
Mark Helprin A Soldier of the Great...
His existence is not a question of argument but of apprehension. Either you apprehend God, or you do not.
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All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
Edward Gorey Ascending Peculiarity:...
All the things you can talk about in anyone's work are the things that are least important.
{...} what I wish for Chizalum is the following: that she is full of opinions, and that her opinions stem from a well-informed, humane, and open mind. That she have health and happiness. That she have the life she wants to have.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Dear Ijeawele, or A...
{...} what I wish for Chizalum is the following: that she is full of opinions, and that her opinions stem from a well-informed, humane, and open mind. That she have health and happiness. That she have the life she wants to have.
«In memory of the countless men and women of all creeds, nations, and races who fell victim to the fascist and communist belief in the Inexorable Laws of Historical Destiny.»
Mario Vargas Llosa The call of the tribe
«In memory of the countless men and women of all creeds, nations, and races who fell victim to the fascist and communist belief in the Inexorable Laws of Historical Destiny.»
"That's a huge gamble." "We're long past the time for careful certainty."
Peter F. Hamilton The Evolutionary Void
"That's a huge gamble." "We're long past the time for careful certainty."
When had it become so ingrained in her to apologize whenever she wanted something for herself?
Robin Hobb The Rain Wilds...
When had it become so ingrained in her to apologize whenever she wanted something for herself?
Relationships and marriages are hard enough, but you add war into the mix and small fissures become gaping wounds. No one sees what you're seeing - again that clear-eyed, unbiased thing - except your fellow soldiers. It's like one of those movies where only the hero can see the ghosts and everyone else thinks the hero is crazy.
Harlan Coben Fool Me Once
Relationships and marriages are hard enough, but you add war into the mix and small fissures become gaping wounds. No one sees what you're seeing - again that clear-eyed, unbiased thing - except your fellow soldiers. It's like one of those movies where only the hero can see the ghosts and everyone else thinks the hero is crazy.
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