These are the contradictions that we are expected, as Palestinians, to solve within ourselves: to exist without talking about why we exist.
"At the Threshold of Humanity, Karim Kattan for The Baffler
And, its final gut-punch of a sentence:
The world itself echoed in this voice on the phone telling me: there is a solution, if only you weren’t so stubborn, there is a solution, which is to vanish within the contradictions wrought upon you; if only you could disinvite yourself from the world, if only you did not complicate the world with your existence, if only I did not have to talk to you, if only I did not have to listen to you, if only.
Midway through Sam Bankman-Fried’s cross examination, as prosecutor Danielle Sassoon went through a brutal line of questioning like a hot buzzsaw through a butter cow, I found myself reflecting on how smart the average person is.
"Sam Bankman-Fried Doesn't Recall", Elizabeth Lopatto for The Verge
Some other excellent sentences from this one:
Sassoon was a matador in kitten heels, baiting Bankman-Fried before driving her sword through his shoulders.
Behind all the finance sheets and code bases, the fall of FTX was in a way incredibly childish: a nerd posse running away with a bunch of other people’s money in the stupidest and simplest way possible.
The story is a wonderful source of wisdom - a sort of preventative medicine, maybe, to take in quiet moments, to bolster us for when the unquiet times come upon us.
"Office Hourse", George Saunders' newsletter Story Club
Submitted by Noah with the following runner-up sentence:
If something occurs, it was, just prior to occurring, about to occur.
The growing trammels of the Standard combination suggested a larger pipe and a line across the country to the sea, dispensing with cars, accidents, monopolies, freights, and all the brood of mischiefs which impede the free distribution of natures distilled gifts.
excerpt from The New York Daily Graphic as cited in The development of American petroleum pipelines: a study in private enterprise and public policy, 1862-1906
Submitted by Charlie, with the comment "I’m not quite sure it’s perfect sentences material but I can’t get over that last part “nature’s distilled gifts” I mean lol." I'm personally quite taken by "the brood of mischiefs", one can imagine a villainous adult referring to a ragtag crew of orphan detectives as such in a middle-grade mystery novel set in some vaguely steampunk era.
She’s an unstoppable chaos queen with a stink-nipple on her butt, who turns luxury Arizona golf courses into free range charcuterie boards for her grub-worm girl dinner.
"Wild pig-like animals are tearing up an Arizona golf course. The internet is delighted", Rae Hodge for Salon
Submitted by Chris.