β
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
β
β
Albert Einstein
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
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
β
β
Bernard M. Baruch
β
I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you.
β
β
Friedrich Nietzsche
β
I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens.
β
β
Woody Allen
β
So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.
β
β
Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
β
Who are you to judge the life I live?
I know I'm not perfect
-and I don't live to be-
but before you start pointing fingers...
make sure you hands are clean!
β
β
Bob Marley
β
The reason I talk to myself is because Iβm the only one whose answers I accept.
β
β
George Carlin
β
You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us. And the world will live as one.
β
β
John Lennon
β
I'm the one that's got to die when it's time for me to die, so let me live my life the way I want to.
β
β
Jimi Hendrix (The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Axis: Bold as Love (Guitar Tabulature))
β
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz
β
Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!
β
β
Audrey Hepburn
β
Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.
β
β
Jonathan Safran Foer (Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close)
β
You donβt have a soul, Doctor. You are a soul. You have a body, temporarily.
β
β
Walter M. Miller Jr. (A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1))
β
When it comes down to it, I let them think what they want. If they care enough to bother with what I do, then I'm already better than them.
β
β
Marilyn Monroe
β
I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I'm awake, you know?
β
β
Ernest Hemingway
β
I love mankind ... it's people I can't stand!!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz
β
To die will be an awfully big adventure.
β
β
J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)
β
And I'm suppose to sit by while you date boys and fall in love with someone else, get married...?" His voice tightened. "And meanwhile, I'll die a little bit more every day, watching.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and you think, I'm not going to make it, but you laugh inside β remembering all the times you've felt that way.
β
β
Charles Bukowski
β
I might be in love with you." He smiles a little. "I'm waiting until I'm sure to tell you, though.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
β
I'm in love with you," he said quietly.
"Augustus," I said.
"I am," he said. He was staring at me, and I could see the corners of his eyes crinkling. "I'm in love with you, and I'm not in the business of denying myself the simple pleasure of saying true things. I'm in love with you, and I know that love is just a shout into the void, and that oblivion is inevitable, and that we're all doomed and that there will come a day when all our labor has been returned to dust, and I know the sun will swallow the only earth we'll ever have, and I am in love with you.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
I'm not saying that everything is survivable. Just that everything except the last thing is.
β
β
John Green (Paper Towns)
β
The Paradoxical Commandments
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
β
β
Kent M. Keith (The Silent Revolution: Dynamic Leadership in the Student Council)
β
Happiness is a warm puppy.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz
β
Creativity is knowing how to hide your sources
β
β
C.E.M. Joad
β
Deadlines just aren't real to me until I'm staring one in the face.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1))
β
That does it," said Jace. "I'm going to get you a dictionary for Christmas this year."
"Why?" Isabelle said.
"So you can look up 'fun.' I'm not sure you know what it means.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Well, Iβm not kissing the mundane," said Jace. "Iβd rather stay down here and rot."
"Forever?" said Simon. "Foreverβs an awfully long time."
Jace raised his eyebrows. "I knew it," he said. "You want to kiss me, donβt you?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.
β
β
Marlene Dietrich
β
My nightmares are usually about losing you. I'm okay once I realize you're here.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2))
β
It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept.
β
β
Bill Watterson
β
I think you still love me, but we canβt escape the fact that Iβm not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So Iβm not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. Iβm not angry, either. I should be, but Iβm not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong.
β
β
Haruki Murakami (South of the Border, West of the Sun)
β
I heard what you said. Iβm not the silly romantic you think. I donβt want the heavens or the shooting stars. I donβt want gemstones or gold. I have those things already. I wantβ¦a steady hand. A kind soul. I want to fall asleep, and wake, knowing my heart is safe. I want to love, and be loved.
β
β
Shana Abe
β
What you must understand about me is that Iβm a deeply unhappy person.
β
β
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
β
Do you remember back at the hotel when you promised that if we lived, youβd get dressed up in a nurseβs outfit and give me a sponge bath?" asked Jace.
"It was Simon who promised you the sponge bath."
"As soon as Iβm back on my feet, handsome," said Simon.
"I knew we should have left you a rat.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
Why are they all staring?" demanded Albus as he and Rose craned around to look at the other students.
"Donβt let it worry you," said Ron. "Itβs me. Iβm extremely famous.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7))
β
Mom says it's because she has PMS.
Do you even know what that means?
"I'm not a little kid anymore. It means pissed-at- men syndrome
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (The Last Song)
β
Do you think I'm pretty?
I think you're beautiful
Beautiful?
You are so beautiful, it hurts sometimes.
β
β
Richelle Mead (Vampire Academy (Vampire Academy, #1))
β
Right now Iβm having amnesia and dΓ©jΓ vu at the same time. I think Iβve forgotten this before.
β
β
Steven Wright
β
But I donβt want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you canβt help that," said the Cat: "weβre all mad here. Iβm mad. Youβre mad."
"How do you know Iβm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldnβt have come here.
β
β
Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)
β
Francois Rabelais. He was a poet. And his last words were "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." That's why I'm going. So I don't have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps.
β
β
John Green (Looking for Alaska)
β
Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?
β
β
L.M. Montgomery
β
Don't." Clary raised a warning hand. "I'm not really in the mood right now."
"That's got to be the first time a girl's ever said that to me," Jace mused.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust.
β
β
J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan (Spanish Edition))
β
There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.
β
β
L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables)
β
I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot.
β
β
J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye)
β
I'm a grenade and at some point I'm going to blow up and I would like to minimize the casualties, okay?
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
Usually I'm remarkably good natured. Try me on a day that doesn't end in y.
β
β
Cassandra Clare
β
No, I'm just a very naughty boy. I do all sorts of bad things. I kick kittens. I make rude gestures at nuns.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!
β
β
Dr. Seuss
β
They say when you are missing someone that they are probably feeling the same, but I don't think it's possible for you to miss me as much as I'm missing you right now
β
β
Edna St. Vincent Millay
β
Don't feel bad, I'm usually about to die.
β
β
Rick Riordan (The Battle of the Labyrinth (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #4))
β
It is not that I'm so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.
β
β
Albert Einstein
β
And now Iβm looking at you,β he said, βand youβre asking me if I still want you, as if I could stop loving you. As if I would want to give up the thing that makes me stronger than anything else ever has. I never dared give much of myself to anyone before β bits of myself to the Lightwoods, to Isabelle and Alec, but it took years to do it β but, Clary, since the first time I saw you, I have belonged to you completely. I still do. If you want me.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
I'm sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It's just been too intelligent to come here.
β
β
Arthur C. Clarke
β
Growing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I'm glad for that.
β
β
Ally Condie (Matched (Matched, #1))
β
I'm not young enough to know everything.
β
β
J.M. Barrie (The Admirable Crichton)
β
Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books.
β
β
Julian Barnes (Flaubert's Parrot)
β
I'm tough, I'm ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.
β
β
Madonna
β
Sometimes when I'm talking, my words can't keep up with my thoughts. I wonder why we think faster than we speak. Probably so we can think twice.
β
β
Bill Watterson
β
I'm oxygen and he's dying to breathe.
β
β
Tahereh Mafi (Shatter Me (Shatter Me, #1))
β
You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.
β
β
L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1))
β
Every now and then I like to do as I'm told, just to confuse people.
β
β
Tamora Pierce (Melting Stones (Circle Reforged, #2))
β
Accept who you are. Unless you're a serial killer.
β
β
Ellen DeGeneres (Seriously... I'm Kidding)
β
My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there.
β
β
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
β
I'm not sentimental--I'm as romantic as you are. The idea, you know,
is that the sentimental person thinks things will last--the romantic
person has a desperate confidence that they won't.
β
β
F. Scott Fitzgerald (This Side of Paradise)
β
I donβt know if youβve ever felt like that. That you wanted to sleep for a thousand years. Or just not exist. Or just not be aware that you do exist. Or something like that. I think wanting that is very morbid, but I want it when I get like this. Thatβs why Iβm trying not to think. I just want it all to stop spinning.
β
β
Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
β
If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days.
β
β
Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar)
β
He was my mum and dad's best friend. He's a convicted murderer, but he's broken out of wizard prison and he's on the run. He likes to keep in touch with me, though...keep up with my news...check if I'm happy...
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3))
β
I'm not going to wear a red dress," she said.
"It would look stunning, My Lady," she called.
She spoke to the bubbles gathered on the surface of the water. "If there's anyone I wish to stun at dinner, I'll hit him in the face.
β
β
Kristin Cashore (Graceling (Graceling Realm, #1))
β
Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I'm gazing at a distant star.
It's dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago.
Maybe the star doesn't even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.
β
β
Haruki Murakami (South of the Border, West of the Sun)
β
Mom. I have something to tell you. Iβm undead. Now, I know you may have some preconceived notions about the undead. I know you may not be comfortable with the idea of me being undead. But Iβm here to tell you that undead are just like you and me β¦ well, okay. Possibly more like me than you.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
β
Never say goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.
β
β
J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)
β
You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It wont happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, βI donβt care how hard this is, I donβt care how disappointed I am, Iβm not going to let this get the best of me. Iβm moving on with my life.
β
β
Joel Osteen (Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential)
β
How do you feel, Georgie?" whispered Mrs. Weasley.
George's fingers groped for the side of his head.
"Saintlike," he murmured.
"What's wrong with him?" croaked Fred, looking terrified. "Is his mind affected?"
"Saintlike," repeated George, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother. "You see...I'm HOLEY, Fred, geddit?
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7))
β
May I see you again?" he asked. There was an endearing nervousness in his voice.
I smiled. "Sure."
"Tomorrow?" he asked.
"Patience, grasshopper," I counseled. "You don't want to seem overeager.
"Right, that's why I said tomorrow," he said. "I want to see you again tonight. But I'm willing to wait all night and much of tomorrow." I rolled my eyes. "I'm serious," he said.
"You don't even know me," I said. I grabbed the book from the center console. "How about I call you when I finish this?"
"But you don't even have my phone number," he said.
"I strongly suspect you wrote it in this book."
He broke out into that goofy smile. "And you say we don't know each other.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.
β
β
J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)
β
Iβm here. I love you. I donβt care if you need to stay up crying all night long, I will stay with you. If you need the medication again, go ahead and take itβI will love you through that, as well. If you donβt need the medication, I will love you, too. Thereβs nothing you can ever do to lose my love. I will protect you until you die, and after your death I will still protect you. I am stronger than Depression and I am braver than Loneliness and nothing will ever exhaust me.
β
β
Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
β
One of the Silent Brothers is here to see you. Hodge sent me to wake you up. Actually he offered to wake you himself, but since it's 5 a.m., I figured you'd be less cranky if you had something nice to look at."
"Meaning you?"
"What else?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
It isn't possible to love and part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.
β
β
E.M. Forster (A Room with a View)
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
Jesper knocked his head against the hull and cast his eyes heavenward. βFine. But if Pekka Rollins kills us all, Iβm going to get Wylanβs ghost to teach my ghost how to play the flute just so that I can annoy the hell out of your ghost.β
Brekkerβs lips quirked. βIβll just hire Matthiasβ ghost to kick your ghostβs ass.β
βMy ghost wonβt associate with your ghost,β Matthias said primly, and then wondered if the sea air was rotting his brain.
β
β
Leigh Bardugo (Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1))
β
I have something I need to tell you," he says. I run my fingers along the tendons in his hands and look back at him. "I might be in love with you." He smiles a little. "I'm waiting until I'm sure to tell you, though."
"That's sensible of you," I say, smiling too. "We should find some paper so you can make a list or a chart or something."
I feel his laughter against my side, his nose sliding along my jaw, his lips pressing my ear.
"Maybe I'm already sure," he says, "and I just don't want to frighten you."
I laugh a little. "Then you should know better."
"Fine," he says. "Then I love you.
β
β
Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
β
I'm coming back into focus when Caesar asks him if he has a girlfriend back home. Peeta hesitates, then gives an unconvincing shake of his head.
Handsome lad like you. There must be some special girl. Come on, whatβs her name?" says Caesar.
Peeta sighs. "Well, there is this one girl. Iβve had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But Iβm pretty sure she didnβt know I was alive until the reaping."
Sounds of sympathy from the crowd. Unrequited love they can relate to.
She have another fellow?" asks Caesar.
I donβt know, but a lot of boys like her," says Peeta.
So, hereβs what you do. You win, you go home. She canβt turn you down then, eh?" says Caesar encouragingly.
I donβt think itβs going to work out. Winning...wonβt help in my case," says Peeta.
Why ever not?" says Caesar, mystified.
Peeta blushes beet red and stammers out. "Because...because...she came here with me.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1))
β
If you want to really hurt you parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.
β
β
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (A Man Without a Country)
β
And I thought about how many people have loved those songs. And how many people got through a lot of bad times because of those songs. And how many people enjoyed good times with those songs. And how much those songs really mean. I think it would be great to have written one of those songs. I bet if I wrote one of them, I would be very proud. I hope the people who wrote those songs are happy. I hope they feel it's enough. I really do because they've made me happy. And I'm only one person.
β
β
Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
β
Augustus Waters was a self-aggrandizing bastard. But we forgive him. We forgive him not because he had a heart as figuratively good as his literal one sucked, or because he knew more about how to hold a cigarette than any nonsmoker in history, or because he got eighteen years when he should've gotten more.'
'Seventeen,' Gus corrected.
'I'm assuming you've got some time, you interupting bastard.
'I'm telling you,' Isaac continued, 'Augustus Waters talked so much that he'd interupt you at his own funeral. And he was pretentious: Sweet Jesus Christ, that kid never took a piss without pondering the abundant metaphorical resonances of human waste production. And he was vain: I do not believe I have ever met a more physically attractive person who was more acutely aware of his own physical attractiveness.
'But I will say this: When the scientists of the future show up at my house with robot eyes and they tell me to try them on, I will tell the scientists to screw off, because I do not want to see a world without him.'
I was kind of crying by then.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
I've never been lonely. I've been in a room -- I've felt suicidal. I've been depressed. I've felt awful -- awful beyond all -- but I never felt that one other person could enter that room and cure what was bothering me...or that any number of people could enter that room. In other words, loneliness is something I've never been bothered with because I've always had this terrible itch for solitude. It's being at a party, or at a stadium full of people cheering for something, that I might feel loneliness. I'll quote Ibsen, "The strongest men are the most alone." I've never thought, "Well, some beautiful blonde will come in here and give me a fuck-job, rub my balls, and I'll feel good." No, that won't help. You know the typical crowd, "Wow, it's Friday night, what are you going to do? Just sit there?" Well, yeah. Because there's nothing out there. It's stupidity. Stupid people mingling with stupid people. Let them stupidify themselves. I've never been bothered with the need to rush out into the night. I hid in bars, because I didn't want to hide in factories. That's all. Sorry for all the millions, but I've never been lonely. I like myself. I'm the best form of entertainment I have. Let's drink more wine!
β
β
Charles Bukowski
β
Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.
β
β
J.D. Salinger
β
Itβs probably not just by chance that Iβm alone. It would be very hard for a man to live with me, unless heβs terribly strong. And if heβs stronger than I, Iβm the one who canβt live with him. β¦ Iβm neither smart nor stupid, but I donβt think Iβm a run-of-the-mill person. Iβve been in business without being a businesswoman, Iβve loved without being a woman made only for love. The two men Iβve loved, I think, will remember me, on earth or in heaven, because men always remember a woman who caused them concern and uneasiness. Iβve done my best, in regard to people and to life, without precepts, but with a taste for justice.
β
β
Coco Chanel
β
Name one hero who was happy."
I considered. Heracles went mad and killed his family; Theseus lost his bride and father; Jason's children and new wife were murdered by his old; Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled by the fall from Pegasus' back.
"You can't." He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
"I can't."
"I know. They never let you be famous AND happy." He lifted an eyebrow. "I'll tell you a secret."
"Tell me." I loved it when he was like this.
"I'm going to be the first." He took my palm and held it to his. "Swear it."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the reason. Swear it."
"I swear it," I said, lost in the high color of his cheeks, the flame in his eyes.
"I swear it," he echoed.
We sat like that a moment, hands touching. He grinned.
"I feel like I could eat the world raw.
β
β
Madeline Miller (The Song of Achilles)
β
Don't tell me," Jace said, "Simon's turned himself into an ocelot and you want me to do something about it before Isabelle makes him into a stole. Well, you'll have have to wait till tomorrow. I'm out of commission." He pointed at himself - he was wearing blue pajamas with a hole in the sleeve. "Look. Jammies."
"Jace," Clary said, "this is important."
"Don't tell me," he said. "You've got a drawing emergency. You need a nude model. Well, I'm not in the mood. You could always ask Hodge," he said as an afterthought. "I hear he'll do anything for a -"
"JACE!" she interrupted him, her voice rising to a scream. "JUST SHUT UP FOR A SECOND AND LISTEN, WILL YOU?
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: Iβm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I donβt accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic β on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg β or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.
β
β
C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)
β
I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.
I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and the Beatles and Marilyn Monroe and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen - I believe that people are perfectable, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones that look like wrinkled lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women.
I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone's ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline in good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state.
I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the big one comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste.
I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we'll all be wiped out by the common cold like martians in War of the Worlds.
I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman.
I believe that mankind's destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it's aerodynamically impossible for a bumble bee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there's a cat in a box somewhere who's alive and dead at the same time (although if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself.
I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn't even know that I'm alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck.
I believe that anyone who says sex is overrated just hasn't done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what's going on will lie about the little things too.
I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies. I believe in a woman's right to choose, a baby's right to live, that while all human life is sacred there's nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system.
I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you're alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.
β
β
Neil Gaiman (American Gods (American Gods, #1))
β
Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines
he wrote a poem
And he called it "Chops"
because that was the name of his dog
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A
and a gold star
And his mother hung it on the kitchen door
and read it to his aunts
That was the year Father Tracy
took all the kids to the zoo
And he let them sing on the bus
And his little sister was born
with tiny toenails and no hair
And his mother and father kissed a lot
And the girl around the corner sent him a
Valentine signed with a row of X's
and he had to ask his father what the X's meant
And his father always tucked him in bed at night
And was always there to do it
Once on a piece of white paper with blue lines
he wrote a poem
And he called it "Autumn"
because that was the name of the season
And that's what it was all about
And his teacher gave him an A
and asked him to write more clearly
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
because of its new paint
And the kids told him
that Father Tracy smoked cigars
And left butts on the pews
And sometimes they would burn holes
That was the year his sister got glasses
with thick lenses and black frames
And the girl around the corner laughed
when he asked her to go see Santa Claus
And the kids told him why
his mother and father kissed a lot
And his father never tucked him in bed at night
And his father got mad
when he cried for him to do it.
Once on a paper torn from his notebook
he wrote a poem
And he called it "Innocence: A Question"
because that was the question about his girl
And that's what it was all about
And his professor gave him an A
and a strange steady look
And his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
because he never showed her
That was the year that Father Tracy died
And he forgot how the end
of the Apostle's Creed went
And he caught his sister
making out on the back porch
And his mother and father never kissed
or even talked
And the girl around the corner
wore too much makeup
That made him cough when he kissed her
but he kissed her anyway
because that was the thing to do
And at three a.m. he tucked himself into bed
his father snoring soundly
That's why on the back of a brown paper bag
he tried another poem
And he called it "Absolutely Nothing"
Because that's what it was really all about
And he gave himself an A
and a slash on each damned wrist
And he hung it on the bathroom door
because this time he didn't think
he could reach the kitchen.
β
β
Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
β
Men always say that as the defining compliment, donβt they? Sheβs a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like sheβs hosting the worldβs biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I donβt mind, Iβm the Cool Girl.
Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe theyβre fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. For a long time Cool Girl offended me. I used to see men β friends, coworkers, strangers β giddy over these awful pretender women, and Iβd want to sit these men down and calmly say: You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men whoβd like to believe that this kind of woman exists and might kiss them. Iβd want to grab the poor guy by his lapels or messenger bag and say: The bitch doesnβt really love chili dogs that much β no one loves chili dogs that much! And the Cool Girls are even more pathetic: Theyβre not even pretending to be the woman they want to be, theyβre pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be. Oh, and if youβre not a Cool Girl, I beg you not to believe that your man doesnβt want the Cool Girl. It may be a slightly different version β maybe heβs a vegetarian, so Cool Girl loves seitan and is great with dogs; or maybe heβs a hipster artist, so Cool Girl is a tattooed, bespectacled nerd who loves comics. There are variations to the window dressing, but believe me, he wants Cool Girl, who is basically the girl who likes every fucking thing he likes and doesnβt ever complain. (How do you know youβre not Cool Girl? Because he says things like: βI like strong women.β If he says that to you, he will at some point fuck someone else. Because βI like strong womenβ is code for βI hate strong women.β)
β
β
Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)
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))