Sustenance Quotes

“From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain and nourish all the world.”
― Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost

“Give sustenance, Allah.
Give sustenance to me.”
― Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns

“There are stories in the air as thick as birds around me, he would say. I will save those stories from starving he would say. I have a great hunger for stories, he would say.”
― Brian Doyle, Mink River

“Every minister worthy of the name has to walk the line between prophetic vision and spiritual sustenance, between telling people the comforting things they want to hear and challenging them with the difficult things they need to hear. In Oxford, Daddy began to feel as though all the members wanted him to do was to marry them and bury them and stay away from their souls.”
― Timothy B. Tyson, Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story

“Most human beings strongly believe that money is way less important than the life of a human being, but in reality five hundred, fifty, or even five dollars are way more important to the lives of most human beings than the lives of most human beings.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“He realized he needed strength, sustenance that couldn’t come from bread alone. He desperately needed God.”
― J.E.B. Spredemann, An Unforgivable Secret

“The feeling inside that she experienced when she saw the books was akin to the hunger she felt as food was put on the table at the end of the working day. And she knew that she needed this sustenance as surely as her body needed its fuel.”
― Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs

“We, in the interest of the so-called progress, have been persuaded to leave the production and at times the cooking of our food to companies whose owners and employees make a living by exploiting our busyness or laziness and our innate hunger to continue living.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana, The Use and Misuse of Children

“If hot food is they key to maintaining an expedition's stamina, then low grade gut-rot alcohol is the key to sustaining its sense of pleasure.”
― Tahir Shah, House of the Tiger King : The Quest for a Lost City

“A job shouldn’t be a mean of existence but rather, a means of sustenance”
― Sunday Adelaja

“I was describing the other day my success in solitary and distant woodland walking outside the town. I do not go there to get my dinner, but to get that sustenance which dinners only preserve me to enjoy, without which dinners are a vain repetition.”
― Henry David Thoreau, The Journal, 1837-1861

“Your job cannot sustain you, only your calling can”
― Sunday Adelaja

“At least you've brought gifts. What's in the basket?"
She rummaged through the contents. "A few sweetmeats and lozenges. Packets of raisins. But mostly it's Aunt Thea's surplus cosmetics and remedies. She sends away for every product advertised in every ladies' magazine. I like to see them put to some use."
He blinked at her. "These are your gifts?"
"Your men have depleted our stores of food, and I didn't have time to prepare anything else."
"What are they supposed to do with-" he held up a brown bottle and peered at the label- "Dr. Jacobs' Miracle Elixir?" He plucked a small jar out next. "Excelsior Blemish Cream?"
"Women are women, Logan. Every girl needs a bit of luxury and a chance to feel pretty now and then.”
― Tessa Dare, When a Scot Ties the Knot

“Sleep!” cried Father Brown. “Sleep. We have come to the end of the ways. Do you know what sleep is? Do you know that every man who sleeps believes in God? It is a sacrament; for it is an act of faith and it is a food. And we need a sacrament, if only a natural one. Something has fallen on us that falls very seldom on men; perhaps the worst thing that can fall on them.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Innocence of Father Brown

“But I want to be free, I want to fly away. If that means living outdoors, well, that's fine by me. If it means not having any food, so what? The only sustenance that matters is the love in my dog's eyes and the hope of meeting people who dare to truly live.”
― Maude Julien, The Only Girl in the World

“I was drained of money very rapidly. In a fortnight I was reduced to short allowance; that is, I could allow myself only one meal a-day. From the keen appetite produced by constant exercise, and mountain air, acting on a youthful stomach, I soon began to suffer greatly on this slender regimen; for the single meal, which I could venture to order, was coffee or tea. Even this, however, was at length withdrawn: and afterwards, so long as I remained in Wales, I subsisted either on blackberries, hips, haws, or on the casual hospitalities which I now and then received, in return for such little services as I had an opportunity of rendering.”
― Thomas de Quincey, De Quincey's Writings

“Whenever we face challenges, we have the privilege of framing them in words—words that express our hopes, our losses, our dreams; words that transform our personal vision or the world's. These words can become a source of sustenance and discovery, for the sometimes long work of bringing to birth necessary change.”
― L.L. Barkat, Earth to Poetry: A 30-Days, 30-Poems Earth, Self, and Other Care Challenge

“Over the years modern farming has reduced soil to....‘dirt’ – a sterile medium in which plants struggle to grow without artificial fertilizers. It is a self-perpetuating cycle of destruction and chemical dependence.”
― Isabella Tree, Wilding

“I opened the fridge but there was nothing in it; apart from the stubby end of a black pudding sausage wrapped in cling film, which had been in there for god knows how long, as an emergency stash for when we ran out of blood or the butcher's was closed. I chopped it up into little pieces and carried them in the palm of my hand, like I was offering bread crumbs to the birds, while I went around the house one last time. I took little pieces one by one and popped them in my mouth. The black pudding tasted bad, especially so cold from the fridge. And my body couldn't take much of the egg and oats and pepper that were mixed with the blood to make the sausage; I had to spit most of it out. But it was sustenance, enough to tide me over.”
― Claire Kohda, Woman, Eating

“At the bottom of the passage, behind thick steel doors, I witnessed the true wealth of that country.
Others have estimated the value in those rooms of grains, of nuts, of beans; of the millions in canned foie and white asparagus; of the greenhouses under their orange lights, and the vast spice grottos. I can't quote numbers. I can only say what happened when I pressed my face to a wheel of ten-year Parmigiano, how in a burst of grass and ripe pineapple I stood in some green meadow that existed only in the resonance, like a bell's fading peal, of that aroma. I can tell you how it was to cradle wines and vinegars older than myself, their labels crying out the names of lost traditions. And I can tell you of the ferocious crack in my heart when I walked into the deep freezer to see chickens, pigs, rabbits, cows, pheasants, tunas, sturgeon, boars hung two by two. No more boars roamed the world above, no Öland geese, no sharks; the day I climbed the mountain, there vanished wild larks. I knew, then, why the storerooms were guarded as if they held gold, or nuclear armaments. They hid something rarer still: a passage back through time.
The animal carcasses were left unskinned. In the circulating air, the extinct revolved on their hooks to greet me.”
― C Pam Zhang, Land of Milk and Honey

“He produced a wide silver tray with wrought handles that was piled with sliced bread, grapes, apricots, oranges, apples, cheeses, and a goblet of red wine, and put it on the bed.
"Wine?" I asked. I wanted a cup of tea.
"Your blood needs its elements. Drink at least some of it." He sat on the bed next to me. "You must eat now. You will need your strength."
At that moment, the pungent aroma of the cheeses, the sharp citrus of sliced oranges, and the yeasty smell of the bread overrode both my fear and my curiosity. I wanted to dive into the food like a hungry dockworker. With great discipline, I picked up a silver knife and spread soft butter across a slice of the warm bread and then daintily cut a piece of dark cheddar cheese. The food tasted exquisite, and I tried to chew slowly, as he was taking in my every move. We sat in silence for a while as I ate my fill and let the wine relax me.”
― Karen Essex, Dracula in Love

“Wealth is important in life just as food is important for sustenance of the body. Yet excessive accumulation of wealth, like excessive consumption of food, only leads to misery.”
― Awdhesh Singh, 31 Ways to Happiness

“The food we managed to gather was considerably more limited than we'd been led to believe. An excess of individually wrapped panettone and reindeer-shaped chocolate- the dregs of Christmas. Baskets of savory biscuits and variations of chutney. Kitsch American stuff like packets of Froot Loops and jars of marshmallow spread. Large decanters of flavored oils but nothing to dip into them. There weren't even any cheeses or cured meats. But the alcohol was good: bottles of champagne and prosecco, Żubrówka in sculpted glass jars. We sat on the hard floor. Stevie had brought blankets and paper plates, plastic cups and cutlery. It felt like a picnic at the end of the world. I made a plate of Gruyère cheese twists and port-and-fig chutney. I slathered salted caramel dip over savory oatcakes. I had a slice of hazelnut panettone. I finished with some shortbread and sea-salt truffles.”
― Lara Williams, Supper Club

“Myth, on the contrary, is a language which does not want to die: it wrests from the meanings which give it its sustenance an insidious, degraded survival, it provokes in them an artificial reprieve in which it settles comfortably, it turns them into speaking corpses.”
― Roland Barthes, Mythologies

“I dished up a big plate of longsilog---longganisa (the delicious sausages I loved so much I'd named my adorable dachshund after them), sinangag (garlic fried rice), and itlog (fried egg). Traditional Filipino breakfasts typically included sinangag and itlog, as well as some form of protein you chose---tocilog, tapsilog, spamsilog, bangsilog, etc. It sounded intense, but this hearty meal was the only real way to start the day. No bowls of cereal or skipping meals in the Macapagal household. We worked long, hard hours and needed the delicious fuel to get us through the day.”
― Mia P. Manansala, Homicide and Halo-Halo

“Kashi bars, chia seed packets, fresh fruit, and ethically sourced turkey jerky were the day's offerings. I often made a lunch of whatever was available. God knew the Trusties weren't indulging, so I felt it was my duty to make sure the food didn't go to waste.
We often had thank-you gifts of food sent to us by clients, and they invariably made their way to the break room counter too. Magnolia Cupcakes and Jacques Torres Chocolates were a current favorite, but I wasn't picky when it came to sugar.”
― Mary Hollis Huddleston, Without a Hitch

“Food is not merely a means of satiating our hunger, but a source of sustenance that fuels our existence.”
― Rove Monteux, What is Wrong with Society Today

“A stomach, used to being only half filled, becomes complacent; if it starts getting enough, it soon leads to a loud mouth.”
― R. N. Prasher

“Sun above and earth beneath, both together make man's bread.”
― Pearl S. Buck, Kinfolk

“Neither of us was hungry, but we managed to force down a little of Poe's bread, which was, as ever, delicious, buttery with a hint of chocolate, and very refreshing. Having finished the water we had brought with us, we were now forced to drink from creeks and streams. I was not happy about this, but there was no alternative.*

*In some stories, drinking from faerie streams has the same effect upon mortals as faerie wine.”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands