β
You can stop swimming now, Lily. We finally reached the shore.
β
β
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
β
In the future... if by some miracle you ever find yourself in the position to fall in love again... fall in love with me.β He presses his lips against my forehead. βYouβre still my favorite person, Lily. Always will be.
β
β
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
β
The trouble with being in the rat race is that even if you win, you're still a rat.
β
β
Lily Tomlin
β
Surprising yourself is a big thing for meβto go somewhere that I donβt even know Iβm going.
β
β
Lily Tuck
β
When I was growing up I always wanted to be someone. Now I realize I should have been more specific.
β
β
Lily Tomlin
β
She's just one of the plethora of women you rotate through your bed." Lily looked scared out of her mind as the queen changed direction and stalked her. "I will not allow you to besmirch the Esca name with your filthy plot to steal the prince.
β
β
Therisa Peimer (Taming Flame)
β
Sometimes I think that maybe we are just stories. Like we may as well just be words on a page, because we're only what we've done and what we are going to do.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
The important people in our lives leave imprints. They may stay or go in the physical realm, but they are always there in your heart, because they helped form your heart. There's no getting over that.
β
β
Rachel Cohn (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
Lily, Atlas says just keep swimming. βEllen DeGeneres
β
β
Colleen Hoover (It Ends with Us (It Ends with Us, #1))
β
I was always holding onto people, and they were always leaving.
β
β
Lili St. Crow (Jealousy (Strange Angels, #3))
β
I know when I'm awake and when I'm asleep," Ronan Lynch said.
Adam Parrish, curled over himself in a pair of battered, greasy coveralls, asked, "Do you?"
"Maybe I dreamt you," he said.
"Thanks for the straight teeth, then," Adam replied.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
Unrequited love is the infinite curse of a lonely heart.
β
β
Christina Westover
β
I want to believe there is a somebody out there for me. I want to believe that I exist to be there for that somebody.
β
β
Rachel Cohn (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
Adrian, I'm on a date. Why are you here? On my car?
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, For all that we love deeply becomes a part of us.
β
β
Helen Keller
β
Adrian stood there leaning against the doorframe, watching me with his heart in his eyes. In my chest, my own heart was breaking. On my cheek, the lily reminded me who I was.Β
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
Ah, those two. In a fight, theyβre lethal. Around each other, they melt.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
Sage," he said. "What are you wearing?"
I sighed and stared down at the dress. "I know. It's red. Don't start. I'm tired of hearing about it."
"Funny," he said. "I don't think I could ever get tired of looking at it.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
And when you get down to it, Lily, that is the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love but to persist in love.
β
β
Sue Monk Kidd (The Secret Life of Bees)
β
The splendor of the rose and the whiteness of the lily
do not rob the little violet of its scent nor the daisy of its simple charm.
If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.
β
β
Thérèse of Lisieux
β
Luckily, I always travel with a book, just in case I have to wait on line for Santa, or some such inconvenience.
β
β
David Levithan (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
I tried to be a better person for herβ but it was to impress her, to get her to want me. But when Iβm around you, I want to be better becauseβ¦ well, because it feels right. Because I want to. You make me want to become something greater than myself. I want to excel. You inspire me in every act, every word, every glance. I look at you, and youβre likeβ¦ like light made into flesh. [β¦] You have no clue how beautiful you are or how brightly you shine.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
I wanted to talk to someone. But who? Itβs moments like this, when you need someone the most, that your world seems smallest.
β
β
David Levithan (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
Adam was beginning to realize that he hadn't known Ronan at all. Or rather, he had known part of him and assumed it was all of him.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
You need me? You yell. You want to leave? We go. I'll get you out of here, no matter what.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
For the girls with messy hair and thirsty hearts.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
I was attempting to write the story of my life. It wasn't so much about plot. It was much more about character.
β
β
David Levithan (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
Man invented language to satisfy his deep need to complain.
β
β
Lily Tomlin
β
Blue,β he warned, but his voice was chaotic. This close, his throat was scented with mint and wool sweater and vinyl car seat, and Gansey, just Gansey.
She said, βI just want to pretend. I want to pretend that I could.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
Don't tell the others," Gansey said.
"I'm dead," Noah replied, "not stupid.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
You want meaning? Well, the meanings are out there. We're just so damn good at reading them wrong.
β
β
David Levithan (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
But this is touching, Severus,β said Dumbledore seriously. βHave you grown to care for the boy, after all?β
βFor him?β shouted Snape. βExpecto Patronum!β
From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe. She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.
βAfter all this time?β
βAlways,β said Snape.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7))
β
She did not believe he could have really gone, because for her, to leave the person you loved was impossible.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
You think fairy tales are only for girls? Here's a hint - ask yourself who wrote them. I assure you, it wasn't just the women. It's the great male fantasy - all it takes is one dance to know that she's the one. All it takes is the sound of her song from the tower, or a look at her sleeping face. And right away you know - this is the girl in your head, sleeping or dancing or singing in front of you. Yes, girls want their princes, but boys want their princesses just as much. And they don't want a very long courtships. They want to know immediately.
β
β
David Levithan (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
He left bloody fingerprints on the rock, but there was something satisfying about that.
I was here. I exist. Iβm alive, because I bleed.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
You're not dead. You're too goddamn annoying to be dead.
β
β
Lili St. Crow (Strange Angels (Strange Angels, #1))
β
You have to be careful who you meet. You canβt unmeet them.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
I was horribly bookish, to the point of coming right out and saying it, which I knew was not socially acceptable. I particularly loved the adjective bookish, which I found other people used about as often as ramrod or chum or teetotaler.
β
β
David Levithan (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
Adrian ordered a martini, earning disapproving looks from his father and me.
'It's barely noon,' said Nathan.
'I know,' said Adrian. 'I'm surprised I held out that long too.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
Nothing he said could change what I think of you. I've had my mind made up about you for a long time... and it's all good.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
You're in an awfully good mood," he observed. "Was there a sale at Khakis-R-Us?
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
He shook his head. βNo. Because there's no one else out there who understands you like I do.β
I waited for more. βThat's it? You're not going to elaborate on what that means?β
Those green eyes held me. βI don't think I need to.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
Isnβt it obvious, Sage? No, of course it isnβt. I did it so Iβd have a reason to be around you β one I knew you couldnβt refuse.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
We have reason to believe that man first walked upright to free his hands for masturbation.
β
β
Lily Tomlin
β
Iβd mentioned this odd wardrobe choice to Adrian a couple of weeks ago:
βIsnβt Dimitri hot?β
Adrianβs response hadnβt been entirely unexpected:
βWell, yeah, according to most women, at least.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
All books are divisible into two classes: the books of the hours, and the books of all Time.
β
β
John Ruskin (Sesame and Lilies)
β
Let me tell you something straight off. This is a love story, but not like any you've ever heard. The boy and the girl are far from innocent. Dear lives are lost. And good doesn't win.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
Well sure, who doesn't need a boyfriend? but realistically, those exotic creatures are hard to come by. At least a quality one.
β
β
Rachel Cohn (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
It turned out that my curiosity did not outweigh my courage after all. Sometimes love means not being able to bear seeing the one you love the way they are, when they're not what you hoped for.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
Humans were so circular; they lived the same slow cycles of joy and misery over and over, never learning. Every lesson in the universe had to be taught billions of times, and it never stuck.
Maybe it was good that the world forgot every lesson, every good and bad memory, every triumph and failure, all of it dying with each generation. Perhaps this cultural amnesia spared them all. Perhaps if they remembered everything, hope would die instead.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
You made your own jean shorts...with a butter knife?
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
I've always resented Hermione, because I wanted to be her so badly and she never seemed to appreciate as much as I thought she should that she got be her. She got to live at Hogwarts and be friends with Harry and kiss Ron, which was supposed to happen to me.
β
β
Rachel Cohn (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
He shouldn't have said that," repeated Adrian, eerily serious. He leaned his face toward mine. "I don't care if he's not the emotional type or the complimentary type or what. No one can look at you in this dress, in all that fire and gold, and start talking about anachronisms. If I were him, I would have said, 'You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen walking this earth.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
For once, you're going to hear something that doesn't fit into your neat, compartmentalized world of order and logic and reason.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
Behind him, he heard Ronan say, "I like the way you losers thought Instagram before first aid. Fuck off.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
It's easy to get rid of people, Christophe. All you have to do is rely on them.
β
β
Lili St. Crow (Jealousy (Strange Angels, #3))
β
It's hard to answer a question you haven't been asked. It's hard to show you tried unless you end up succeeding.
β
β
David Levithan (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
I said "Somebody should do something about that." Then I realized I am somebody.
β
β
Lily Tomlin
β
And I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it doesn't seem broken at all.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
Really, Sage? A date?β
I sighed. βYes, Adrian. A date.β
βA real date. Not, like, doing homework together,β he added.
βI mean like where you go out to a movie or something. And a
movie thatβs not part of a school assignment. Or about something boring.β
βA real date.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
To love someone was not what she had expected. It was like falling from somewhere high up and breaking in half, and only one person having the secret to the puzzle of putting her back together.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
Sometimes I can't see myself when I'm with you. I can only just see you.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
I'm not myself," she offered, guiltily. She softened around Tik Tok, and when she did she was, for those rare moments, girlish.
He smiled. "You can never say that. You're just a piece of yourself right now that you don't like.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
I mean, like most guys, you carry around this girl in your head, who is exactly who you want her to be. The person you think you will love the most. And every girl you are with gets measured against this girl in your head.
β
β
Rachel Cohn (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
It doesn't matter. Take Eddie's blood. Take Belikov's blood. Take your own for all I care. But If she doesn't want to give hers, then that's all there is to it. She said no. This conversation is done.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
You can be just friends with people, you know," Orla said. "I think it's crazy how you're in love with all those raven boys."
Orla wasn't wrong, of course. But what she didn't realize about Blue and her boys was that they were all in love with one another. She was no less obsessed with them than they were with her, or one another, analyzing every conversation and gesture, drawing out every joke into a longer and longer running gag, spending each moment either with one another or thinking about when next they would be with one another. Blue was perfectly aware that it was possible to have a friendship that wasn't all-encompassing, that wasn't blinding, deafening, maddening, quickening. It was just that now that she'd had this kind, she didn't want the other.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
Iβm going in,β Gansey said as Ronan sat down on the step beside Adam. As Gansey shut the door behind him, he heard Adam say, βI donβt want to talk,β and Ronan reply, βThe fuck would I talk about?
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
Nice blouse, Sage,β Adrian told me, deadpan. βIt really brings out the khaki in your pants.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance.
β
β
John Steinbeck
β
Why not see which is brighter: your aura or the sun?
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
The road to success is always under construction
β
β
Lily Tomlin
β
Desire and dread lay right next to each other in his heart, each sharpening the other.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
It was amazing that she and Ronan didnβt get along better, because they were different brands of the same impossible stuff.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
But perhaps the best part of all was that I, Sydney Katherine Sage, guilty of constantly analyzing the world around me, well, I stopped thinking.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
It kills Dittleys and does terrible things to my friend."
"YOUR DEAD FRIEND."
"That's not his fault. Why didn't you say you could see him?"
"I DIDN'T SAY I COULD SEE YOU, EITHER."
"But I'm not dead."
"BUT YOU ARE PRETTY SHORT.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
I'm glad you misdialed."
"Well. Easy mistake to make," she said. Might do it again." A very, very long pause. She opened her mouth to fill it, then changed her mind and didn't. She was shivering again, even though she wasn't cold with the pillow on her legs.
"Shouldn't," Gansey said finally. "But I hope you do.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
But they were not living, thought Harry: They were gone. The empty words could not disguise the fact that his parents' moldering remains lay beneath snow and stone, indifferent, unknowing. And tears came before he could stop them, boiling hot then instantly freezing on his face, and what was the point in wiping them off or pretending? He let them fall, his lips pressed hard together, looking down at the thick snow hiding from his eyes the place where the last of Lily and James lay, bones now, surely, or dust, not knowing or caring that their living son stood so near, his heart still beating, alive because of their sacrifice and close to wishing, at this moment, that he was sleeping under the snow with them.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7))
β
There are just lots of possibilities in the world...I need to keep my mind open for what could happen and not decide that the world is hopeless if what I want to happen doesn't happen. Because something else great might happen in between.
β
β
Rachel Cohn (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
As they moved through the old barn, Adam felt Ronanβs eyes glance off him and away, his disinterest practiced but incomplete. Adam wondered if anyone else noticed. Part of him wished they did and immediately felt bad, because it was vanity, really:
See, Adam Parrish is wantable, worthy of a crush, not just by anyone, someone like Ronan, who could want Gansey or anyone else and chose Adam for his hungry eyes.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
I mean, what if love isn't a yes-or-no question? It's not either you're in love or you're not. I mean, aren't there different levels? And maybe these things, like words and expectations and whatever, don't go on top of the love. Maybe it's like a map, and they all have their own place, and then when you see it from the sky - whoa.
β
β
David Levithan (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
Day 24. Situation is growing worse. My captors continue to find new and horrific ways to torture me. When not working, Agent Scarlet spends her days examining fabric swatches for bridesmaid dresses and going on about how in love she is. This usually causes Agent Boring Borscht to regale us with stories of Russian weddings that are even more boring than his usual ones. My attempts at escape have been thwarted thus far. Also, I am out of cigarettes. Any assistance or tobacco products you can send will be greatly appreciated.
-Prisoner 24601
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
There is no good word for the opposite of lonesome.
One might be tempted to suggest togetherness or contentment , but the fact that these two other words bear definitions unrelated to each other perfectly displays why lonesome cannot be properly mirrored. It does not mean solitude, nor alone, nor lonely, although lonesome can contain all of those words in itself.
Lonesome means a state of being apart. Of being other. Alone-some.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
We believe in the wrong things, that's what frustrates me the most. Not the lack of belief, but the belief in the wrong things. You want meaning? Well, the meanings are out there. We're just so damn good at reading them wrong.
β
β
David Levithan (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
Did you know I always thought you were braver than me? Did you ever guess that that was why I was so afraid? It wasn't that I only loved some of you. But I wondered if you could ever love more than some of me.
I knew I'd miss you. But the surprising thing is, you never leave me. I never forget a thing. Every kind of love, it seems, is the only one. It doesn't happen twice. And I never expected that you could have a broken heart and love with it too, so much that it doesn't seem broken at all. I know young people look at me and think my youth seems so far away, but it's all around me, and you're all around me. Tiger Lily, do you think magic exists if it can be explained? I can explain why I loved you, I can explain the theory of evolution that tells me why mermaids live in Neverland and nowhere else. But it still feels magic.
The lost boys all stood at our wedding. Does it seem odd to you that they could have stood at a wedding that wasn't yours and mine? It does to me. and I'm sorry for it, and for a lot, and I also wouldn't change it.
It is so quiet here. Even with all the trains and the streets and the people. It's nothing like the jungle. The boys have grown. Everything has grown. Do you think you will ever grow? I hope not. I like to think that even if I change and fade away, some other people won't.
I like to think that one day after I die, at least one small particle of me - of all the particles that will spread everywhere - will float all the way to Neverland, and be part of a flower or something like that, like that poet said, the one that your Tik Tok loved. I like to think that nothing's final, and that everyone gets to be together even when it looks like they don't, that it all works out even when all the evidence seems to say something else, that you and I are always young in the woods, and that I'll see you sometime again, even if it's not with any kind of eyes I know of or understand. I wouldn't be surprised if that is the way things go after all - that all things end happy. Even for you and Tik Tok. and for you and me.
Always,
Your Peter
P.S. Please give my love to Tink. She was always such a funny little bug.
β
β
Jodi Lynn Anderson (Tiger Lily)
β
He froze, and for one moment, we stood locked in time. I could feel the silk of his shirt against my skin and the warmth of his body. The lingering scent of the overpriced cologne he wore floated around me. No smoke for a change. Iβd always told him the cologne couldnβt be worth what he spent, but suddenly, I reconsidered. It was amazing.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
It should have been impossible. No one should have been able to dream any of these thing, much less all of them. But Adam had seen what Ronan could do. He'd read the dreamt will and ridden in the dreamt Camaro and been terrified by the dreamt night terror.
It was possible that there were two gods in this church.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
Discipline allows magic. To be a writer is to be the very best of assassins. You do not sit down and write every day to force the Muse to show up. You get into the habit of writing every day so that when she shows up, you have the maximum chance of catching her, bashing her on the head, and squeezing every last drop out of that bitch.
β
β
Lili St. Crow
β
Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up. But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what lives only for a day. It pours the whole of itself into the each moment. We don't value the lily less for not being made of flint and built to last. Life's bounty is in its flow, later is too late. Where is the song when it's been sung? The dance when it's been danced? It's only we humans who want to own the future, too. We persuade ourselves that the universe is modestly employed in unfolding our destination. We note the haphazard chaos of history by the day, by the hour, but there is something wrong with the picture. Where is the unity, the meaning, of nature's highest creation? Surely those millions of little streams of accident and wilfulness have their correction in the vast underground river which, without a doubt, is carrying us to the place where we're expected! But there is no such place, that's why it's called utopia. The death of a child has no more meaning than the death of armies, of nations. Was the child happy while he lived? That is a proper question, the only question. If we can't arrange our own happiness, it's a conceit beyond vulgarity to arrange the happiness of those who come after us.
β
β
Tom Stoppard (The Coast of Utopia (Box Set))
β
He reached out and pulled me to him, one hand on my waist and the other behind my neck. He tipped my head up and lowered his lips to mine. I closed my eyes and melted as my whole body was consumed in that kiss. I was nothing. I was everything. Chills, ran over my skin, and fire burned inside me. His body pressed closer to mine, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. His lips were warmer and softer than anything I could have ever imagined, yet fierce and powerful at the same time. Mine responded hungrily, and I tightened my hold on him. His fingers slid down the back of my neck, tracing its shape, and every place they touched was electric.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
β
But isn't this a dance? Isn't all of this a dance? Isn't that what we do with words? Isn't that what we do when we talk, when we spar, when we make plans or leave it to chance? Some of it's choreographed. Some of the steps have been done for ages. And the rest -- the rest is spontaneous. The rest has to be decided on the floor, in the moment, before the music ends.
β
β
David Levithan (Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Dash & Lily, #1))
β
Adam finally sat down on one of the pews. Laying his cheek against the smooth back of it, he looked at Ronan. Strangely enough, Ronan belonged here, too, just as he had at the Barns. This noisy, lush religion had created him just as much as his father's world of dreams; it seemed impossible for all of Ronan to exist in one person. Adam was beginning to realize that he hadn't known Ronan at all. Or rather, he had known part of him and assumed it was all of him.
The scent of Cabeswater, all trees after rain, drifted past Adam, and he realized that while he'd been looking at Ronan, Ronan had been looking at him.
β
β
Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
β
I know how you guys feel about us. I'm not stupid, and believe me, I've tried to get you out of my head. But there isn't enough liquor or art or any other distraction in the world to do it. I had to stop going to Wolfe's because it was too hard being that close to you, even if it was all just pretend fighting. I couldn't stand the touching. It was agonizing because it meant something to meοΌand I knew it meant nothing to you. I kept telling myself to stay away altogether, and then I'd find excusesβ¦ like the carβ¦ anything to be around you again.
β
β
Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
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Jesus Christ lived in the midst of his enemies. At the end all his disciples deserted him. On the Cross he was utterly alone, surrounded by evildoers and mockers. For this cause he had come, to bring peace to the enemies of God. So the Christian, too, belongs not in the seclusion of a cloistered life but in the thick of foes. There is his commission, his work. 'The kingdom is to be in the midst of your enemies. And he who will not suffer this does not want to be of the Kingdom of Christ; he wants to be among friends, to sit among roses and lilies, not with the bad people but the devout people. O you blasphemers and betrayers of Christ! If Christ had done what you are doing who would ever have been spared' (Luther).
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community)
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First of all, love is a joint experience between two persons β but the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved. There are the lover and the beloved, but these two come from different countries. Often the beloved is only a stimulus for all the stored-up love which had lain quiet within the lover for a long time hitherto. And somehow every lover knows this. He feels in his soul that his love is a solitary thing. He comes to know a new, strange loneliness and it is this knowledge which makes him suffer. So there is only one thing for the lover to do. He must house his love within himself as best he can; he must create for himself a whole new inward world β a world intense and strange, complete in himself. Let it be added here that this lover about whom we speak need not necessarily be a young man saving for a wedding ring β this lover can be man, woman, child, or indeed any human creature on this earth.
Now, the beloved can also be of any description. The most outlandish people can be the stimulus for love. A man may be a doddering great-grandfather and still love only a strange girl he saw in the streets of Cheehaw one afternoon two decades past. The preacher may love a fallen woman. The beloved may be treacherous, greasy-headed, and given to evil habits. Yes, and the lover may see this as clearly as anyone else β but that does not affect the evolution of his love one whit. A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild, extravagant, and beautiful as the poison lilies of the swamp. A good man may be the stimulus for a love both violent and debased, or a jabbering madman may bring about in the soul of someone a tender and simple idyll. Therefore, the value and quality of any love is determined solely by the lover himself.
It is for this reason that most of us would rather love than be loved. Almost everyone wants to be the lover. And the curt truth is that, in a deep secret way, the state of being beloved is intolerable to many. The beloved fears and hates the lover, and with the best of reasons. For the lover is forever trying to strip bare his beloved. The lover craves any possible relation with the beloved, even if this experience can cause him only pain.
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Carson McCullers (The Ballad of the Sad CafΓ© and Other Stories)
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There are many different types of kisses. Thereβs a passionate kiss of farewellβlike the kind Rhett gave Scarlett when he went off to war. The kiss of I-canβt-really-be-with-you-but-I-want-to-beβlike with Superman and Lois Lane. Thereβs the first kissβone that is gentle and hesitant, warm and vulnerable. And then thereβs the kiss of possessionβwhich was how Ren kissed me now.
It went beyond passion, beyond desire. His kiss was full of longing, need, and love, like all those other kisses. But, it was also filled with promises and pledges, some of which seemed sweet and tender while others seemed dangerous and exciting. He was taking me over. Staking a claim.
He seized me as boldly as the tiger captured his prey. There was no escape. And I didnβt want to. I would have happily died in his clutches. I was his. And he made sure I knew it. My heart burst with a thousand beautiful blooms, all tiger lilies. And I knew with a certainty more powerful than anything Iβd ever felt before that we belonged together.
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Colleen Houck (Tiger's Quest (The Tiger Saga, #2))
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In the hall stood Richard Campbell Gansey III in his school uniform and overcoat and scarf and gloves, looking like someone from another world. Behind him was Ronan Lynch, his damn tie knotted right for once and his shirt tucked in.
Humiliation and joy warred furiously inside Adam.
Gansey strode between the pews as Adam's father stared at him. He went directly to the bench, straight up to the judge. Now that he stood directly beside Adam, not looking at him, Adam could see that he was a little out of breath. Ronan, behind him, was as well. they had run.
For him.
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Maggie Stiefvater (Blue Lily, Lily Blue (The Raven Cycle, #3))
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Can you think what the Mirror of Erised shows us all?" Harry shook his head.
"Let me explain. The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is. Does that help."
Harry thought. Then he said slowly, "It shows us what we want... whatever we want..."
"Yes and no," said Dumbledore quietly.
"It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. You, who have never known your family, see them standing around you. Ronald Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone, the best of all of them. However, this mirror will give us neither knowledge or truth. Men have wasted away before it, entranced by what they have seen, or been driven mad, not knowing if what it shows is real or even possible.
"The Mirror will be moved to a new home tomorrow, Harry, and I ask you not to go looking for it again. If you ever do run across it, you will now be prepared. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live, remember that. Now, why don't you put that admirable cloak back on and get off to bed.
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J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1))
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If you went twenty-four hours without cigarettes, I'd drink a can of pop. Regular pop. The whole can."
Isaw the glimmer of Adrian's earlier smile returning. "You would not."
"I totally would."
"Half a can would put you into a coma."
Sonya frowned. "Are you diabetic?" she asked me.
"No," said Adrian, "but Sage is convinced one extraneous calorie will make her go from super skinny to just regular skinny. Tragedy."
"Hey," I said. "You think itβd be a tragedy to go an hour without a cigarette."
"Donβt question my steel resolve, Sage. I went without one for two hours today."
"Show me twenty-four, and then Iβll be impressed."
He gave me a look of mock surprise. "You mean you arenβt already? And here I thought you were dazzled from the moment you met me.
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Richelle Mead (The Golden Lily (Bloodlines, #2))
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Dirge Without Music
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains,βbut the best is lost.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,β
They are gone. They are gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind;
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
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Edna St. Vincent Millay (Collected Poems)
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Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, ``What shall we eat?'' or ``What shall we drink?'' or ``What shall we wear?'' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
- Matthew 6:25-34
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Anonymous (The Holy Bible: King James Version)