β
I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.
β
β
Marilyn Monroe
β
If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.
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β
Mark Twain
β
There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.
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β
Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)
β
Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.
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β
Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)
β
The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.
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β
Bob Marley
β
When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable.
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β
Jess C. Scott (The Intern)
β
The reason I talk to myself is because Iβm the only one whose answers I accept.
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β
George Carlin
β
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
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β
Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)
β
But better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie.
β
β
Khaled Hosseini
β
The truth." Dumbledore sighed. "It is a beautiful and terrible thing, and should therefore be treated with great caution.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1))
β
A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.
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β
Mark Twain
β
Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.
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β
Mark Twain
β
Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.
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β
George Orwell (1984)
β
The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.
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β
Joe Klaas (The Twelve Steps to Happiness: A Practical Handbook for Understanding and Working the Twelve Step Programs for Alcoholism, Codependency, Eating Disorders, and Other Addictions)
β
I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun.
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Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1))
β
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
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β
Aldous Huxley (Complete Essays, Vol. II: 1926-1929)
β
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
β
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.
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Mahatma Gandhi
β
In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
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β
George Orwell
β
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.
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β
Oscar Wilde
β
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
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β
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
β
Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.
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β
Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov)
β
Here's all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid.
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β
George Carlin (When Will Jesus Bring The Pork Chops?)
β
Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you.
β
β
Carlos Ruiz ZafΓ³n (The Shadow of the Wind (The Cemetery of Forgotten Books, #1))
β
I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?
β
β
John Lennon
β
The unexamined life is not worth living.
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β
Socrates
β
Be mindful. Be grateful. Be positive. Be true. Be kind.
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β
Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)
β
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
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β
Oscar Wilde
β
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
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β
Winston S. Churchill
β
When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
β
β
Arthur Conan Doyle (The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes, #9))
β
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
β
β
Anonymous (Holy Bible: New International Version)
β
Everyone should be able to do one card trick, tell two jokes, and recite three poems, in case they are ever trapped in an elevator.
β
β
Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)
β
I lie to myself all the time. But I never believe me.
β
β
S.E. Hinton (The Outsiders)
β
Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.
β
β
William Faulkner
β
Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.
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β
Mark Twain (Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World)
β
Fiction is the truth inside the lie.
β
β
Stephen King
β
Sometimes people don't want to hear the truth because they don't want their illusions destroyed.
β
β
Friedrich Nietzsche
β
The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it.
β
β
Flannery O'Connor
β
The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.
β
β
Steve Maraboli (Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience)
β
This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.
β
β
Marilyn Monroe
β
Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.
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β
Henry David Thoreau (Walden)
β
The things you do for yourself are gone when you are gone, but the things you do for others remain as your legacy.
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β
Kalu Ndukwe Kalu
β
The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway
β
Tell the truth, or someone will tell it for you.
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β
Stephanie Klein (Straight Up and Dirty)
β
Some old wounds never truly heal, and bleed again at the slightest word.
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β
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
β
Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.
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β
Pablo Picasso
β
There are no facts, only interpretations.
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β
Friedrich Nietzsche
β
I suspect the truth is that we are waiting, all of us, against insurmountable odds, for something extraordinary to happen to us.
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β
Khaled Hosseini (And the Mountains Echoed)
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It's enough for me to be sure that you and I exist at this moment.
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β
Gabriel GarcΓa MΓ‘rquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude)
β
If writers wrote as carelessly as some people talk, then adhasdh asdglaseuyt[bn[ pasdlgkhasdfasdf.
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β
Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)
β
Don't bend; don't water it down; don't try to make it logical; don't edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.
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β
Franz Kafka
β
Thatβs part of what I like about the book in some ways. It portrays death truthfully. You die in the middle of your life, in the middle of a sentence
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β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
The more I see, the less I know for sure.
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β
John Lennon
β
A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them.
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β
Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)
β
When someone is crying, of course, the noble thing to do is to comfort them. But if someone is trying to hide their tears, it may also be noble to pretend you do not notice them.
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β
Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)
β
All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.
β
β
Ernest Hemingway
β
If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.
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β
Virginia Woolf
β
Love is always patient and kind. It is never jealous. Love is never boastful or conceited. It is never rude or selfish. It does not take offense and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other peopleβs sins, but delights in the truth. It is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.
β
β
Anonymous (Holy Bible: New International Version)
β
There are three types of lies -- lies, damn lies, and statistics.
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β
Benjamin Disraeli
β
The past has no power over the present moment.
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β
Eckhart Tolle
β
It's just that...I just think that some things are meant to be broken. Imperfect. Chaotic. It's the universe's way of providing contrast, you know? There have to be a few holes in the road. It's how life is.
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β
Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)
β
If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they'll kill you.
β
β
George Bernard Shaw
β
Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.
β
β
Marcus Aurelius (Meditations)
β
That was the thing. You never got used to it, the idea of someone being gone. Just when you think it's reconciled, accepted, someone points it out to you, and it just hits you all over again, that shocking.
β
β
Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)
β
A truth that's told with bad intent
Beats all the lies you can invent.
β
β
William Blake (Auguries of Innocence)
β
It is my belief... that the truth is generally preferable to lies.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4))
β
People have forgotten this truth," the fox said. "But you mustnβt forget it. You become responsible forever for what youβve tamed. Youβre responsible for your rose.
β
β
Antoine de Saint-ExupΓ©ry (The Little Prince)
β
I have learned now that while those who speak about one's miseries usually hurt, those who keep silence hurt more.
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β
C.S. Lewis
β
There is only one sin. and that is theft... when you tell a lie, you steal someones right to the truth.
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β
Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner)
β
If she's amazing, she won't be easy. If she's easy, she won't be amazing. If she's worth it, you wont give up. If you give up, you're not worthy. ... Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.
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β
Bob Marley (Bob Marley: Guitar Chord Songbook (Guitar Chord Songbooks))
β
The truth is what I make it. I could set this world on fire and call it rain.
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β
Victoria Aveyard (Red Queen (Red Queen, #1))
β
No persons are more frequently wrong, than those who will not admit they are wrong.
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β
François de La Rochefoucauld
β
If there's a single lesson that life teaches us, it's that wishing doesn't make it so.
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β
Lev Grossman (The Magicians (The Magicians, #1))
β
You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you mad.
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β
Aldous Huxley
β
Illegal aliens have always been a problem in the United States. Ask any Indian.
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β
Robert Orben
β
Love can change a person the way a parent can change a baby- awkwardly, and often with a great deal of mess.
β
β
Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)
β
People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is 'you're safe with me'- that's intimacy.
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β
Taylor Jenkins Reid (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo)
β
The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you.
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β
David Foster Wallace (Infinite Jest)
β
Truth only means something when it's hard to admit.
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β
Nicholas Sparks (The Last Song)
β
I like flaws. I think they make things interesting.
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β
Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)
β
Thinking something does not make it true. Wanting something does not make it real.
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β
Michelle Hodkin (The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (Mara Dyer, #1))
β
It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things.
β
β
Lemony Snicket (Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid)
β
Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and dreams are the shadow-truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes, and forgot.
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β
Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, Vol. 3: Dream Country)
β
It's all in the view. That's what I mean about forever, too. For any one of us our forever could end in an hour, or a hundred years from now. You never know for sure, so you'd better make every second count.
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β
Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)
β
If people refuse to look at you in a new light and they can only see you for what you were, only see you for the mistakes you've made, if they don't realize that you are not your mistakes, then they have to go.
β
β
Steve Maraboli (Life, the Truth, and Being Free)
β
The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can't be any large-scale revolution until there's a personal revolution, on an individual level. It's got to happen inside first.
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β
Jim Morrison
β
Dreams like a podcast,
Downloading truth in my ears.
They tell me cool stuff."
"Apollo?" I guess, because I figured nobody else could make a haiku that bad.
He put his finger to his lips. "I'm incognito. Call me Fred."
"A god named Fred?
β
β
Rick Riordan
β
The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them
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β
Thomas Merton (No Man Is an Island)
β
Maybe you can afford to wait. Maybe for you there's a tomorrow. Maybe for you there's one thousand tomorrows, or three thousand, or ten, so much time you can bathe in it, roll around it, let it slide like coins through you fingers. So much time you can waste it.
But for some of us there's only today. And the truth is, you never really know.
β
β
Lauren Oliver (Before I Fall)
β
Grown-ups don't look like grown-ups on the inside either. Outside, they're big and thoughtless and they always know what they're doing. Inside, they look just like they always have. Like they did when they were your age. Truth is, there aren't any grown-ups. Not one, in the whole wide world.
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β
Neil Gaiman (The Ocean at the End of the Lane)
β
So you're always honest," I said.
"Aren't you?"
"No," I told him. "I'm not."
"Well, that's good to know, I guess."
"I'm not saying I'm a liar," I told him. He raised his eyebrows. "That's not how I meant it, anyways."
"How'd you mean it, then?"
"I just...I don't always say what I feel."
"Why not?"
"Because the truth sometimes hurts," I said.
"Yeah," he said. "So do lies, though.
β
β
Sarah Dessen (Just Listen)
β
Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day:
- I shall not fear anyone on Earth.
- I shall fear only God.
- I shall not bear ill will toward anyone.
- I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.
- I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering.
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β
Mahatma Gandhi
β
I knew, in the silence that followed, that anything could happen here. It might be too late: again, I might have missed my chance. But I would at least know I tried, that I took my heart and extended my hand, whatever the outcome.
"Okay," he said. He took a breath. "What would you do, if you could do anything?"
I took a step toward him, closing the space between us. "This," I said. And then I kissed him.
β
β
Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)
β
Dare to Be
When a new day begins, dare to smile gratefully.
When there is darkness, dare to be the first to shine a light.
When there is injustice, dare to be the first to condemn it.
When something seems difficult, dare to do it anyway.
When life seems to beat you down, dare to fight back.
When there seems to be no hope, dare to find some.
When youβre feeling tired, dare to keep going.
When times are tough, dare to be tougher.
When love hurts you, dare to love again.
When someone is hurting, dare to help them heal.
When another is lost, dare to help them find the way.
When a friend falls, dare to be the first to extend a hand.
When you cross paths with another, dare to make them smile.
When you feel great, dare to help someone else feel great too.
When the day has ended, dare to feel as youβve done your best.
Dare to be the best you can β
At all times, Dare to be!
β
β
Steve Maraboli (Life, the Truth, and Being Free)
β
Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don't blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being "in love", which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.
β
β
Shawn Slovo (Captain Corelli's Mandolin filmscript)
β
1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
β
β
Miguel Ruiz
β
Tess, Tess, Tessa.
Was there ever a more beautiful sound than your name? To speak it aloud makes my heart ring like a bell. Strange to imagine that, isnβt it β a heart ringing β but when you touch me that is what it is like: as if my heart is ringing in my chest and the sound shivers down my veins and splinters my bones with joy.
Why have I written these words in this book? Because of you. You taught me to love this book where I had scorned it. When I read it for the second time, with an open mind and heart, I felt the most complete despair and envy of Sydney Carton. Yes, Sydney, for even if he had no hope that the woman he loved would love him, at least he could tell her of his love. At least he could do something to prove his passion, even if that thing was to die.
I would have chosen death for a chance to tell you the truth, Tessa, if I could have been assured that death would be my own. And that is why I envied Sydney, for he was free.
And now at last I am free, and I can finally tell you, without fear of danger to you, all that I feel in my heart.
You are not the last dream of my soul.
You are the first dream, the only dream I ever was unable to stop myself from dreaming. You are the first dream of my soul, and from that dream I hope will come all other dreams, a lifetimeβs worth.
With hope at least,
Will Herondale
β
β
Cassandra Clare (Clockwork Prince (The Infernal Devices, #2))
β
Clary,
Despite everything, I can't bear the thought of this ring being lost forever, any more then I can bear the thought of leaving you forever. And though I have no choice about the one, at least I can choose about the other. I'm leaving you our family ring because you have as much right to it as I do.
I'm writing this watching the sun come up. You're asleep, dreams moving behind your restless eyelids. I wish I knew what you were thinking. I wish I could slip into your head and see the world the way you do. I wish I could see myself the way you do. But maybe I dont want to see that. Maybe it would make me feel even more than I already do that I'm perpetuating some kind of Great Lie on you, and I couldn't stand that.
I belong to you. You could do anything you wanted with me and I would let you. You could ask anything of me and I'd break myself trying to make you happy. My heart tells me this is the best and greatest feeling I have ever had. But my mind knows the difference between wanting what you can't have and wanting what you shouldn't want. And I shouldn't want you.
All night I've watched you sleeping, watched the moonlight come and go, casting its shadows across your face in black and white. I've never seen anything more beautiful. I think of the life we could have had if things were different, a life where this night is not a singular event, separate from everything else that's real, but every night. But things aren't different, and I can't look at you without feeling like I've tricked you into loving me.
The truth no one is willing to say out loud is that no one has a shot against Valentine but me. I can get close to him like no one else can. I can pretend I want to join him and he'll believe me, up until that last moment where I end it all, one way or another. I have something of Sebastian's; I can track him to where my father's hiding, and that's what I'm going to do. So I lied to you last night. I said I just wanted one night with you. But I want every night with you. And that's why I have to slip out of your window now, like a coward. Because if I had to tell you this to your face, I couldn't make myself go.
I don't blame you if you hate me, I wish you would. As long as I can still dream, I will dream of you.
_Jace
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers. I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone. They are like lonely persons. Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfil themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree. When a tree is cut down and reveals its naked death-wound to the sun, one can read its whole history in the luminous, inscribed disk of its trunk: in the rings of its years, its scars, all the struggle, all the suffering, all the sickness, all the happiness and prosperity stand truly written, the narrow years and the luxurious years, the attacks withstood, the storms endured. And every young farmboy knows that the hardest and noblest wood has the narrowest rings, that high on the mountains and in continuing danger the most indestructible, the strongest, the ideal trees grow.
Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.
A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.
A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labor is holy. Out of this trust I live.
When we are stricken and cannot bear our lives any longer, then a tree has something to say to us: Be still! Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life is not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.
A longing to wander tears my heart when I hear trees rustling in the wind at evening. If one listens to them silently for a long time, this longing reveals its kernel, its meaning. It is not so much a matter of escaping from one's suffering, though it may seem to be so. It is a longing for home, for a memory of the mother, for new metaphors for life. It leads home. Every path leads homeward, every step is birth, every step is death, every grave is mother.
So the tree rustles in the evening, when we stand uneasy before our own childish thoughts: Trees have long thoughts, long-breathing and restful, just as they have longer lives than ours. They are wiser than we are, as long as we do not listen to them. But when we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy. Whoever has learned how to listen to trees no longer wants to be a tree. He wants to be nothing except what he is. That is home. That is happiness.
β
β
Hermann Hesse (BΓ€ume: Betrachtungen und Gedichte)