Piercing Quotes

We've searched our database for all the quotes and captions related to Piercing. Here they are! All 100 of them:

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You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope...I have loved none but you.
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Jane Austen (Persuasion)
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Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly – they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.
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Aldous Huxley (Brave New World)
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Every now and then I like to do as I'm told, just to confuse people.
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Tamora Pierce (Melting Stones (Circle Reforged, #2))
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For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
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J.R.R. Tolkien (The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3))
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Threats are the last resort of a man with no vocabulary.
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Tamora Pierce (Lady Knight (Protector of the Small, #4))
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There is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.
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Diane Setterfield (The Thirteenth Tale)
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You didn't kill him. He would have killed you, but you didn't kill him." "So? He was stupid. If I killed everyone who was stupid, I wouldn't have time to sleep.
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Tamora Pierce (In the Hand of the Goddess (Song of the Lioness, #2))
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I'm not good," he said, piercing me with eyes that absorbed all light but reflected none, "but I was worse.
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Becca Fitzpatrick (Hush, Hush (Hush, Hush, #1))
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Body and soul, let's all go / transformed into arrows! / Piercing the air / body and soul, let's go / with no turning back.
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Ko Un
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The moment our lips met, I knew with pure and piercing certainty that I would have waited for him forever.
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Leigh Bardugo (Shadow and Bone (The Shadow and Bone Trilogy, #1))
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I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in F. W. I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never.
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Jane Austen (Persuasion)
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For it would seem - her case proved it - that we write, not with the fingers, but with the whole person. The nerve which controls the pen winds itself about every fibre of our being, threads the heart, pierces the liver.
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Virginia Woolf (Orlando)
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Home isn't where you're from, it's where you find light when all grows dark.
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Pierce Brown (Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2))
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You do not follow me because I am the strongest. Pax is. You do not follow me because I am the brightest. Mustang is. You follow me because you do not know where you are going. I do.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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Curiosity killed the cat,” Fesgao remarked, his dark eyes unreadable. Aly rolled her eyes. Why did everyone say that to her? β€œPeople always forget the rest of the saying,” she complained. β€œβ€˜And satisfaction brought it back.
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Tamora Pierce (Trickster's Choice (Daughter of the Lioness, #1))
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Man cannot be freed by the same injustice that enslaved it.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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Never can true reconcilement grow where wounds of deadly hate have pierced so deep...
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John Milton (Paradise Lost)
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You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever.
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Jane Austen (Persuasion)
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Someday I must read this scholar Everyone. He seems to have written so much--all of it wrong.
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Tamora Pierce (Emperor Mage (Immortals, #3))
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There is no greater plague to an introvert than the extrovert.
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Pierce Brown (Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2))
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You may be the only person left who believes in you, but it's enough. It takes just one star to pierce a universe of darkness. Never give up.
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Richelle E. Goodrich (Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, and Grumblings for Every Day of the Year)
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Tris: "I was reading." Sandry: "You're always reading. The only way people can ever talk to you is to interrupt." Tris: "Then maybe they shouldn't talk to me.
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Tamora Pierce (Briar's Book (Circle of Magic, #4))
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Friendships take minutes to make, moments to break, years to repair.
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Pierce Brown (Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2))
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He taught me there's a place on a man's back where, if you sink a blade in, you can pierce his heart and sever his spine, all at once,' Sebastian had said. 'I guess we got the same birthday present that year, big brother,' Jace thought. 'Didn't we?
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Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
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There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.
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J.R.R. Tolkien (The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3))
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Lord Raoul asked me to tell you that if you get yourself killed, he will never speak to you again.
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Tamora Pierce
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Hearing him talk about his mother, about his intact family, makes my chest hurt for a second, like someone pierced it with a needle.
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Veronica Roth (Divergent (Divergent, #1))
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The measure of a man is what he does when he has power.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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Here are beauties which pierce like swords or burn like cold iron. Here is a book which will break your heart." [on Lord of the Rings]
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C.S. Lewis
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When you love someone, they become a part of who you are. They're in everything you do. They're in the air you breathe and the water you drink and the blood in your veins. Their touch stays on your skin and their voice stays in your ears and their thoughts stay in your mind. You know their dreams because their nightmares pierce your heart and their good dreams are your dreams too. And you don't think they're perfect, but you know their flaws, the deep-down truth of them, and the shadows of all their secrets, and they don't frighten you away; in fact you love them more for it, because you don't want perfect. You want them. You wantβ€”" He broke off then, as if realizing everyone was looking at him again. "You want what?" said Dru with enormous eyes. "Nothing," Julian said. "I'm just talking.
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Cassandra Clare (Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices, #1))
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I will die. You will die. We will all die and the universe will carry on without care. All that we have is that shout into the wind - how we live. How we go. And how we stand before we fall.
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Pierce Brown (Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2))
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When in doubt, shoot the wizard.
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Tamora Pierce
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Why do boys say someone acts like a girl as if it were an insult?
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Tamora Pierce (In the Hand of the Goddess (Song of the Lioness, #2))
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I think it's fair rude to make him a tree and not know what kind he is.
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Tamora Pierce (Wolf-Speaker (Immortals, #2))
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A good friend will help you up when you fall. A best friend will laugh and try to trip you again. - I'm not sure
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Tamora Pierce (The Immortals (Immortals, #1-4))
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You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own, than when you almost broke it eight years and a half ago.
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Jane Austen (Persuasion)
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If you've a story, make sure it's a whole one, with details close to hand. It's the difference between a good lie and getting caught.
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Tamora Pierce (Trickster's Choice (Daughter of the Lioness, #1))
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Funny thing, watching gods realize they’ve been mortal all along.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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When people say a knight's job is all glory, I laugh and laugh and laugh. Often I can stop laughing before they edge away and talk about soothing drinks.
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Tamora Pierce (Squire (Protector of the Small, #3))
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I am the Reaper and death is my shadow.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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A friend had commented once that Neal had a gift for making someone want to punch him just for saying hello.
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Tamora Pierce (Page (Protector of the Small, #2))
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We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day.
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Edith Lovejoy Pierce
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I distrust any advice that contains the words 'ought' or 'should'.
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Tamora Pierce
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Liars make the best promises.
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Pierce Brown (Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2))
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You look as scary as a buttered muffin.
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Tamora Pierce
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There's plenty more fish in the sea than Prince Jonathan," he told her softly. "And this particular fish loves you with all his crooked heart." -George to Alanna
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Tamora Pierce (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man (Song of the Lioness, #3))
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Love and war are two different battlefields.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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A man thinks he can fly, but he is afraid to jump. A poor friend pushes him from behind.” He looks up at me. β€œA good friend jumps with.
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Pierce Brown (Morning Star (Red Rising, #3))
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Wise men read books about history. Strong men write them.
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Pierce Brown (Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2))
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Girls are 50% of the population. We deserve to represent 50% of the heroes.
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Tamora Pierce
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I live for the dream that my children will be born free. That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.' 'I live for you,' I say sadly. She kisses my cheek. 'Then you must live for more.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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Military folk," Neal said with exaggerated patience, shaking his head. "The only way you know to solve problems is by beating them with a stick.
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Tamora Pierce (Lady Knight (Protector of the Small, #4))
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You must tell Lady Alanna that sometime. I'd do it from a distance.
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Tamora Pierce (Emperor Mage (Immortals, #3))
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Men don't think and differently from women - they just make more noise about being able to.
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Tamora Pierce (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man (Song of the Lioness, #3))
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Funny how a single word can change everything in your life." "It is not funny at all. Steel is power. Money is power. But of all the things in all the worlds, words are power.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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The bravest person I know is afraid of the dark. She sleeps with a night lamp always, but if her friends are threatened? She suddenly thinks she's a bear twelve feet tall and attacks whoever scared her friends.
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Tamora Pierce (Cold Fire (The Circle Opens, #3))
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You're more trouble than you're worth." "I'm a girl. That's my job.
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Tamora Pierce (Street Magic (The Circle Opens, #2))
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Libraries are places where the damaged go to find friends
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Tamora Pierce
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It's not victory that makes a man. It's his defeats.
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Pierce Brown (Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2))
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Don't call me 'gentleman'. I work for a livin'.
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Tamora Pierce
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Forget a man’s name and he’ll forgive you. Remember it, and he’ll defend you forever.
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Pierce Brown (Morning Star (Red Rising, #3))
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You haven't been bit till a dragon does it.
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Tamora Pierce (Emperor Mage (Immortals, #3))
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Break the chains, my love.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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Never break a promise to an animal. They're like babiesβ€”they won't understand.
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Tamora Pierce (Wild Magic (Immortals, #1))
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Unending Love I seem to have loved you in numberless forms, numberless times... In life after life, in age after age, forever. My spellbound heart has made and remade the necklace of songs, That you take as a gift, wear round your neck in your many forms, In life after life, in age after age, forever. Whenever I hear old chronicles of love, it's age old pain, It's ancient tale of being apart or together. As I stare on and on into the past, in the end you emerge, Clad in the light of a pole-star, piercing the darkness of time. You become an image of what is remembered forever. You and I have floated here on the stream that brings from the fount. At the heart of time, love of one for another. We have played along side millions of lovers, Shared in the same shy sweetness of meeting, the distressful tears of farewell, Old love but in shapes that renew and renew forever. Today it is heaped at your feet, it has found its end in you The love of all man's days both past and forever: Universal joy, universal sorrow, universal life. The memories of all loves merging with this one love of ours - And the songs of every poet past and forever.
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Rabindranath Tagore (Selected Poems)
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I'd like to find whoever taught the Stump that extra work builds character and push him down the stairs," Neal told Kel at lunch.
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Tamora Pierce (First Test (Protector of the Small, #1))
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He always thinks because I’m reading, I’m not doing anything. There is no greater plague to an introvert than the extroverted.
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Pierce Brown (Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2))
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I suppose he could have changed," Neal said dryly. "I myself have noticed my growing resemblance to a daffodil." The other pages snorted. Kel eyed her friend. "You do look yellow around the edges," she told him, her face quite serious. "I hadn’t wanted to bring it up." "We daffodils like to have things brought up," Neal said, slinging an arm around her shoulders. "It reminds us of spring.
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Tamora Pierce (Page (Protector of the Small, #2))
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I love you, if you get yourself killed, I will never forgive you.
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Tamora Pierce
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Why, I’m just as true and honest as dirt. And I’m even more charming than dirt.
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Tamora Pierce (Trickster's Choice (Daughter of the Lioness, #1))
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Sharpened by hate. Strengthened by love.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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She is something new, something hopeful. Like spring to my deep winter.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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Do you know, sire, I think that if we live to tell our grandchildren about this war, they will accuse us of making it up.' -Marielle
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Tamora Pierce (The Realms of the Gods (Immortals, #4))
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I'm sick of this. Call me what you like, say I'm without honor, I don't care. I'm not getting on any more horses to whack you people with a stick.
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Tamora Pierce (Squire (Protector of the Small, #3))
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You know, ogres only sound stupid. Most are pretty smart." "And it's a shallow person who judges anyone by the way they sound. I'm so shallow I'm surprised I don't reflect myself.
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Tamora Pierce (First Test (Protector of the Small, #1))
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But, Sergeant Osbern, Sir, I like my head.
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Tamora Pierce
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It's not just children who need heroes.
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Tamora Pierce
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You're a sinister little shit, aren't you?" Victra asks. "I'm Gold, bitch. What'd you expect? Warm milk and cookies just because I'm pocket sized?
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Pierce Brown (Golden Son (Red Rising Saga, #2))
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Most humans think the appearance of quiet is quiet. They do not see that sometimes the enemy is as quiet as the serpent. Only when it has stolen all of their eggs will they know bad walks in the quiet as well as the noisy.
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Tamora Pierce (Trickster's Choice (Daughter of the Lioness, #1))
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Bye, Felicia.
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Pierce Brown (Morning Star (Red Rising, #3))
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Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
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Tamora Pierce (Bloodhound (Beka Cooper, #2))
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Personally, I do not want to make you a man. Men are so very frail. Men break. Men die. No, I’ve always wished to make a god.
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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You and I keep looking for light in the darkness, expecting it to appear. But it already has.” I touch his shoulder. β€œWe’re it, boyo. Broken and cracked and stupid as we are, we’re the light, and we’re spreading.
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Pierce Brown (Morning Star (Red Rising, #3))
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Does your ma know you're this silly?" she demanded tartly. He nodded, comically sad. "The few gray hairs she has on her head are my doing. But" β€” with an exaggerated change of mood β€” "I send her plenty of money, so she can pay to have them dyed!" "I hope she beat you as a child," Onua grumbled.
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Tamora Pierce (Wild Magic (Immortals, #1))
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Seniors get to do all the jolly things," Owen complained as they walked to archery practice that first day. Neal glared at the chubby second-year with all the royal disdain of a vexed lion. He was limping from a staff blow to the knee. "You are a bloody minded-savage," he informed Owen sternly. "I hope you are kidnapped by centaurs.
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Tamora Pierce (Page (Protector of the Small, #2))
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My love, my love Remember the cries When winter died for spring skies They roared and roared But we grabbed our seed And sowed a song Against their greed And Down in the vale Hear the reaper swing, the reaper swing the reaper swing Down in the vale Hear the reaper sing A tale of winter done My son, my son Remember the chains When gold ruled with iron reins We roared and roared And twisted and screamed For ours, a vale of better dreams
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Pierce Brown (Red Rising (Red Rising Saga, #1))
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When you love someone, they become a part of who you are. They’re in everything you do. They’re in the air you breathe and the water you drink and the blood in your veins. Their touch stays on your skin and their voice stays in your ears and their thoughts stay in your mind. You know their dreams because their nightmares pierce your heart and their good dreams are your dreams too. And you don’t think they’re perfect, but you know their flaws, the deep-down truth of them, and the shadows of all their secrets, and they don’t frighten you away; in fact you love them more for it, because you don’t want perfect. You want them.
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Cassandra Clare (Lady Midnight (The Dark Artifices, #1))
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Because I am enough. My heart is enough. The stories and the sentences twisting around my mind are enough. I am fizzing and frothing and buzzing and exploding. I'm bubbling over and burning up. My early-morning walks and my late-night baths are enough. My loud laugh at the pub is enough. My piercing whistle, my singing in the shower, my double-jointed toes are enough. I am a just-pulled pint with a good, frothy head on it. I am my own universe; a galaxy; a solar system. I am the warm-up act, the main event, and the backing singers. And if this is it, if this is all there is- just me and the trees and the sky and the seas- I know now that that's enough.
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Dolly Alderton (Everything I Know About Love)
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You saw a ghost, didn't you?" he said. To my relief, I managed to laugh. "Hate to break it to you, but there's no such thing as ghosts." Huh." His gaze traveled around the laundry room, like a cop searching for an escaped convict. When he turned that piercing look on me, its intensity sucked the backbone out of me. What do you see, Chloe?" I -I-I don't s-s-s-" Slow down." He snapped the words, impatient. "What do they look like? Do they talk to you?" You really want to know?" Yeah." I chewed my lip, then lifted onto my tiptoes. He bent to listen. They wear white sheets with big eye holes. And they say 'Boo!'" I glowered up at him. "Now get out of my way." I expected him tosneer. Cross his arms and say, Make me, little girl.His lips twitched and I steeled myself, then I realized he was smiling.Laughing at me. He stepped aside. I swept past him to the stairs.
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Kelley Armstrong (The Summoning (Darkest Powers, #1))
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You are a terrifying creature," the Voice told her solemnly. "You do not take your place in your father's tent, letting men make your decisions for you. You ride as a man, you fight as a man, and you think as a man --" "I think as a human being," she retorted hotly. "Men don't think any differently from women -- they just make more fuss about being able to.
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Tamora Pierce (The Woman Who Rides Like a Man (Song of the Lioness, #3))
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A girl nearby muttered,"If that's a lady, I'm a cat." Reaching out, Sandry lifted the pitcher of milk from the table. Cradling it in both hands, she walked over to the mutterer. I am Sandrilene fa Toren, daughter of Count Mattin fer Toren and his countess, Amiliane fa Landreg. I am the great-niece of his grace, Duke Vedris of this realm of Emelan, and cousin of her Imperial Highness, Empress Berenene of the Namorn Empire. You are Esmelle ei Pragin, daughter of Baron Witten en Pragin and his lady Colledia of House Wheelwright, a merchant house. If I tell you my friend is a lady, then you"- carefully she poured milk into Esmelle's plate-"you had best start lapping, kitty." She set the pitcher down and returned to her chair.
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Tamora Pierce (Sandry's Book (Circle of Magic, #1))
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In speaking of this desire for our own far off country, which we find in ourselves even now, I feel a certain shyness. I am almost committing an indecency. I am trying to rip open the inconsolable secret in each one of youβ€”the secret which hurts so much that you take your revenge on it by calling it names like Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence; the secret also which pierces with such sweetness that when, in very intimate conversation, the mention of it becomes imminent, we grow awkward and affect to laugh at ourselves; the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell, though we desire to do both. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience. We cannot hide it because our experience is constantly suggesting it, and we betray ourselves like lovers at the mention of a name. Our commonest expedient is to call it beauty and behave as if that had settled the matter. Wordsworth’s expedient was to identify it with certain moments in his own past. But all this is a cheat. If Wordsworth had gone back to those moments in the past, he would not have found the thing itself, but only the reminder of it; what he remembered would turn out to be itself a remembering. The books or the music in which we thought the beauty was located will betray us if we trust to them; it was not in them, it only came through them, and what came through them was longing. These thingsβ€”the beauty, the memory of our own pastβ€”are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for the thing itself they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshipers. For they are not the thing itself; they are only the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never yet visited.
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C.S. Lewis (The Weight of Glory)
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I measure every Grief I meet With narrow, probing, Eyes; I wonder if It weighs like Mine, Or has an Easier size. I wonder if They bore it long, Or did it just begin? I could not tell the Date of Mine, It feels so old a pain. I wonder if it hurts to live, And if They have to try, And whether, could They choose between, It would not be, to die. I note that Some -- gone patient long -- At length, renew their smile. An imitation of a Light That has so little Oil. I wonder if when Years have piled, Some Thousands -- on the Harm Of early hurt -- if such a lapse Could give them any Balm; Or would they go on aching still Through Centuries above, Enlightened to a larger Pain By Contrast with the Love. The Grieved are many, I am told; The reason deeper lies, -- Death is but one and comes but once, And only nails the eyes. There's Grief of Want and Grief of Cold, -- A sort they call "Despair"; There's Banishment from native Eyes, In sight of Native Air. And though I may not guess the kind Correctly, yet to me A piercing Comfort it affords In passing Calvary, To note the fashions of the Cross, And how they're mostly worn, Still fascinated to presume That Some are like My Own.
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Emily Dickinson (I'm Nobody! Who Are You? (Scholastic Classics))
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I have loved in life and I have been loved. I have drunk the bowl of poison from the hands of love as nectar, and have been raised above life's joy and sorrow. My heart, aflame in love, set afire every heart that came in touch with it. My heart has been rent and joined again; My heart has been broken and again made whole; My heart has been wounded and healed again; A thousand deaths my heart has died, and thanks be to love, it lives yet. I went through hell and saw there love's raging fire, and I entered heaven illumined with the light of love. I wept in love and made all weep with me; I mourned in love and pierced the hearts of men; And when my fiery glance fell on the rocks, the rocks burst forth as volcanoes. The whole world sank in the flood caused by my one tear; With my deep sigh the earth trembled, and when I cried aloud the name of my beloved, I shook the throne of God in heaven. I bowed my head low in humility, and on my knees I begged of love, "Disclose to me, I pray thee, O love, thy secret." She took me gently by my arms and lifted me above the earth, and spoke softly in my ear, "My dear one, thou thyself art love, art lover, and thyself art the beloved whom thou hast adored.
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Hazrat Inayat Khan (The Dance of the Soul: Gayan, Vadan, Nirtan (Sufi Sayings))
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Suicide is a form of murderβ€” premeditated murder. It isn’t something you do the first time you think of doing it. It takes some getting used to. And you need the means, the opportunity, the motive. A successful suicide demands good organization and a cool head, both of which are usually incompatible with the suicidal state of mind. It’s important to cultivate detachment. One way to do this is to practice imagining yourself dead, or in the process of dying. If there’s a window, you must imagine your body falling out the window. If there’s a knife, you must imagine the knife piercing your skin. If there’s a train coming, you must imagine your torso flattened under its wheels. These exercises are necessary to achieving the proper distance. The debate was wearing me out. Once you've posed that question, it won't go away. I think many people kill themselves simply to stop the debate about whether they will or they won't. Anything I thought or did was immediately drawn into the debate. Made a stupid remarkβ€”why not kill myself? Missed the busβ€”better put an end to it all. Even the good got in there. I liked that movieβ€”maybe I shouldn’t kill myself. In reality, it was only part of myself I wanted to kill: the part that wanted to kill herself, that dragged me into the suicide debate and made every window, kitchen implement, and subway station a rehearsal for tragedy.
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Susanna Kaysen
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I waited for him to say something more, but he was quiet. "Was there something you wanted?" I asked. He didn't answer right away, but I could feel him struggling, so I waited. "If I asked you something, would you tell me the truth?" It was my turn to hesitate. "I don't know everything," I hedged. "You would know this. When we were walking... me and Jeb... he was telling me some things. Things he thought, but I don't know if he's right." Melanie was suddenly very in my head. Jamie's whisper was hard to hear, quieter than my breathing. "Uncle Jeb thinks that Melanie might still be alive. Inside there with you, I mean." Melanie sighed. I said nothing to either of them. "I didn't know that could happen. Does that happen?" His voice broke and I could hear that he was fighting tears. He was not a boy to cry, and here I'd grieved him this deeply twice in one day. A pain pierced through the general region of my chest. "Does it, Wanda?" "Why won't you answer me?" Jamie was really crying now but trying to muffle the sound. I crawled off the bed, squeezing into the hard space between the mattress and the mat, and threw my arm over his shaking chest. I leaned my head against his hair and felt his tears, warm on my neck. "Is Melanie still alive, Wanda? Please?" He was probably a tool. The old man could have sent him just for this, Jeb was smart enough to see how easily Jamie broke through my defenses. Jamie's body shook beside me. Melanie cried. She battered ineffectually at my control. But I couldn't blame this on Melanie if it turned out to be a huge mistake. I knew who was speaking now. "She promised she would come back, didn't she?" I murmured. "Would Melanie break a promise to you?" Jamie slid his arms around my waist and clung to me for a long time. After a few minutes, he whispered. "Love you, Mel." "She loves you, too. She's so happy that you're here and safe." He was silent long enough for the tears on my skin to dry, leaving a fine, salty dust behind.
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Stephenie Meyer (The Host (The Host, #1))
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Strigoi have red eyes, " I explained. "Do his eyes look red?" The boy leaned forward. "No. They're brown. " "What else do you know about Strigoi?" I asked. "They have fangs like us, " the boy replied. "Do you have fangs?" I asked Dimitri in a singsong voice. I had a feeling this was already-covered territory, but it took on a new feel when asked from a child's perspective. Dimitri smiled--a full, wonderful smile that caught me off guard. "Okay, Jonathan, " said his mother anxiously. "You asked. Let's go now. " "Strigoi are super strong, " continued Jonathan, who possibly aspired to be a future lawyer. "Nothing can hurt them. " Jonathan fixed Dimitri with a piercing gaze. "Are you super strong? Can you be hurt?" "Of course I can, " replied Dimitri. "I'm strong, but all sorts of things can still hurt me. " And then, being Rose Hathaway, I said something I really shouldn't have to the boy. "You should go punch him and find out. " Jonathan's mother screamed again, but he was a fast little bastard, eluding her grasp. He ran up to Dimitri before anyone could stop him--well, I could have--and pounded his tiny fist against Dimitri's knee. Then, with the same reflexes that allowed him to dodge enemy attacks, Dimitri immediately feinted falling backward, as though Jonathan had knocked him over. Clutching his knee, Dimitri groaned as though he were in terrible pain. Several people laughed, and by then, one of the other guardians had caught hold of Jonathan and returned him to his near-hysterical mother. As he was being dragged away, Jonathan glanced over his shoulder at Dimitri. "He doesn't seem very strong to me. I don't think he's a Strigoi. " This caused more laughter
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Richelle Mead (Spirit Bound (Vampire Academy, #5))
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I believe that sanitizing this aspect of the modern and ancient world is at the root of our troubles as a culture now. We're bred to be smug about how peaceful we are, so we can watch television and feel safely distant from violence, when it is part of our makeup. That smugness means we don't feel we have to do anything about the violence we see, because it's obviously committed by people who aren't as educated or civilized as we are. By holding ourselves aloof from global and historical violence, we allow it to continue. If we are ever to survive as a species, we need to admit we are violent and find ways to ease the plight of the victims of violence worldwide. (No, invading a violent country and bombing it will not inspire its people to give violence up. Go figure.) We must face who we are and what creates violence: helplessness, envy, rage, even the drive to grab the good things of the world that are flaunted in the faces of the poor. We must take responsibility and protect each other from violence.
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Tamora Pierce
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what love looks like what does love look like the therapist asks one week after the breakup and i’m not sure how to answer her question except for the fact that i thought love looked so much like you that’s when it hit me and i realized how naive i had been to place an idea so beautiful on the image of a person as if anybody on this entire earth could encompass all love represented as if this emotion seven billion people tremble for would look like a five foot eleven medium-sized brown-skinned guy who likes eating frozen pizza for breakfast what does love look like the therapist asks again this time interrupting my thoughts midsentence and at this point i’m about to get up and walk right out the door except i paid too much money for this hour so instead i take a piercing look at her the way you look at someone when you’re about to hand it to them lips pursed tightly preparing to launch into conversation eyes digging deeply into theirs searching for all the weak spots they have hidden somewhere hair being tucked behind the ears as if you have to physically prepare for a conversation on the philosophies or rather disappointments of what love looks like well i tell her i don’t think love is him anymore if love was him he would be here wouldn’t he if he was the one for me wouldn’t he be the one sitting across from me if love was him it would have been simple i don’t think love is him anymore i repeat i think love never was i think i just wanted something was ready to give myself to something i believed was bigger than myself and when i saw someone who probably fit the part i made it very much my intention to make him my counterpart and i lost myself to him he took and he took wrapped me in the word special until i was so convinced he had eyes only to see me hands only to feel me a body only to be with me oh how he emptied me how does that make you feel interrupts the therapist well i said it kind of makes me feel like shit maybe we’re looking at it wrong we think it’s something to search for out there something meant to crash into us on our way out of an elevator or slip into our chair at a cafe somewhere appear at the end of an aisle at the bookstore looking the right amount of sexy and intellectual but i think love starts here everything else is just desire and projection of all our wants needs and fantasies but those externalities could never work out if we didn’t turn inward and learn how to love ourselves in order to love other people love does not look like a person love is our actions love is giving all we can even if it’s just the bigger slice of cake love is understanding we have the power to hurt one another but we are going to do everything in our power to make sure we don’t love is figuring out all the kind sweetness we deserve and when someone shows up saying they will provide it as you do but their actions seem to break you rather than build you love is knowing who to choose
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Rupi Kaur (the sun and her flowers)