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
You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like there's nobody listening,
And live like it's heaven on earth.
β
β
William W. Purkey
β
You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.
β
β
Dr. Seuss
β
Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . .
β
β
C.S. Lewis (The Four Loves)
β
A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.
β
β
Elbert Hubbard
β
Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.
β
β
Martin Luther King Jr. (A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches)
β
We accept the love we think we deserve.
β
β
Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
β
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.
β
β
AndrΓ© Gide (Autumn Leaves)
β
As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.
β
β
John Green (The Fault in Our Stars)
β
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
β
β
H. Jackson Brown Jr. (P.S. I Love You)
β
It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.
β
β
Friedrich Nietzsche
β
Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.
β
β
Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones)
β
Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none: be able for thine enemy
Rather in power than use; and keep thy friend
Under thy own life's key: be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd for speech.
β
β
William Shakespeare (All's Well That Ends Well)
β
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
β
β
Lao Tzu
β
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
β
β
Elie Wiesel
β
I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.
β
β
Douglas Adams (The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time)
β
If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
β
β
Mother Teresa
β
There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.
β
β
Sarah Dessen (The Truth About Forever)
β
Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
β
β
Robert A. Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land)
β
You love me. Real or not real?"
I tell him, "Real.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3))
β
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.
β
β
Charles M. Schulz
β
Love is like the wind, you can't see it but you can feel it.
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (A Walk to Remember)
β
There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.
β
β
Jane Austen (Northanger Abbey)
β
Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.
β
β
Mother Teresa
β
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close.
β
β
Pablo Neruda (100 Love Sonnets)
β
You don't love someone because they're perfect, you love them in spite of the fact that they're not.
β
β
Jodi Picoult (My Sisterβs Keeper)
β
If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.
β
β
Alfred Tennyson
β
If you can make a woman laugh, you can make her do anything.
β
β
Marilyn Monroe
β
There is no pretending," Jace said with absolute clarity. "I love you, and I will love you until I die, and if there is life after that, I'll love you then.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Glass (The Mortal Instruments, #3))
β
The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space.
β
β
Marilyn Monroe
β
When someone loves you, the way they talk about you is different. You feel safe and comfortable.
β
β
Jess C. Scott (The Intern)
β
Do not pity the dead, Harry. Pity the living, and, above all those who live without love.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7))
β
Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.
"After all this time?"
"Always," said Snape.
β
β
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7))
β
A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe, and leaves before she is left.
β
β
Marilyn Monroe
β
I am good, but not an angel. I do sin, but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love.
β
β
Marilyn Monroe
β
I love mankind ... it's people I can't stand!!
β
β
Charles M. Schulz
β
Weβre all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdnessβand call it loveβtrue love.
β
β
Robert Fulghum (True Love)
β
A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.
β
β
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)
β
Remember, we're madly in love, so it's all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it.
β
β
Suzanne Collins (The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1))
β
Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.
β
β
AnaΓ―s Nin
β
To die will be an awfully big adventure.
β
β
J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)
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
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind; And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind. Nor hath love's mind of any judgment taste; Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste: And therefore is love said to be a child, Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd.
β
β
William Shakespeare (A Midsummer Nightβs Dream)
β
Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and theyβll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back.
β
β
John Green (An Abundance of Katherines)
β
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
β
β
Pablo Neruda (100 Love Sonnets)
β
I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough..
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)
β
Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
β
β
Alfred Tennyson (In Memoriam)
β
Just when you think it can't get any worse, it can. And just when you think it can't get any better, it can.
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (At First Sight (Jeremy Marsh & Lexie Darnell, #2))
β
Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood.
β
β
George Orwell (1984)
β
So it's not gonna be easy. It's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me... everyday.
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)
β
Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?'
Jace said, "Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself."
..."At least," she said, "you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland."
"Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting.
β
β
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
β
The one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.
β
β
Chuck Palahniuk (Invisible Monsters)
β
I finally understood what true love meant...love meant that you care for another person's happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be.
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (Dear John)
β
You can't live your life for other people. You've got to do what's right for you, even if it hurts some people you love.
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook (The Notebook, #1))
β
Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.
β
β
Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird)
β
When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.
β
β
Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)
β
One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.
β
β
Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)
β
He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.
β
β
Emily BrontΓ« (Wuthering Heights)
β
In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.
β
β
Jane Austen (Pride And Prejudice)
β
Never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.
β
β
Oscar Wilde
β
Sometimes you have to be apart from people you love, but that doesn't make you love them any less. Sometimes you love them more.
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (The Last Song)
β
I would die for you. But I won't live for you.
β
β
Stephen Chbosky (The Perks of Being a Wallflower)
β
We love the things we love for what they are.
β
β
Robert Frost
β
So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.
β
β
Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)
β
You can love someone so much...But you can never love people as much as you can miss them.
β
β
John Green
β
Love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you.
β
β
Sarah Dessen (This Lullaby)
β
The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.
β
β
C.S. Lewis
β
The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
You are my best friend as well as my lover, and I do not know which side of you I enjoy the most. I treasure each side, just as I have treasured our life together.
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook (The Notebook, #1))
β
You are, and always have been, my dream.
β
β
Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook)
β
Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.
β
β
C.S. Lewis (The Four Loves)
β
I would always rather be happy than dignified.
β
β
Charlotte BrontΓ« (Jane Eyre)
β
Women are meant to be loved, not to be understood.
β
β
Oscar Wilde (Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Stories)
β
Every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. Those who wish to sing always find a song. At the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.
β
β
Plato
β
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
β
β
William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
β
I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.
β
β
Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)
β
Where there is love there is life.
β
β
Mahatma Gandhi
β
When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.
β
β
Mahatma Gandhi
β
Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.
β
β
Rainer Maria Rilke (Letters to a Young Poet)
β
You can't force love, I realized. It's there or it isn't. If it's not there, you've got to be able to admit it. If it is there, you've got to do whatever it takes to protect the ones you love.
β
β
Richelle Mead (Frostbite (Vampire Academy, #2))
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
Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.
β
β
Fyodor Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov)
β
I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. They don't teach you how to walk away from someone you don't love any longer. They don't teach you how to know what's going on in someone else's mind. They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying. They don't teach you anything worth knowing.
β
β
Neil Gaiman (The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones)
β
You may not be her first, her last, or her only. She loved before she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters? She's not perfectβyou aren't either, and the two of you may never be perfect together but if she can make you laugh, cause you to think twice, and admit to being human and making mistakes, hold onto her and give her the most you can. She may not be thinking about you every second of the day, but she will give you a part of her that she knows you can breakβher heart. So don't hurt her, don't change her, don't analyze and don't expect more than she can give. Smile when she makes you happy, let her know when she makes you mad, and miss her when she's not there.
β
β
Bob Marley
β
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.
β
β
C.S. Lewis (The Four Loves)
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
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
β
β
Anonymous (Holy Bible: New International Version)
β
I no longer believed in the idea of soul mates, or love at first sight. But I was beginning to believe that a very few times in your life, if you were lucky, you might meet someone who was exactly right for you. Not because he was perfect, or because you were, but because your combined flaws were arranged in a way that allowed two separate beings to hinge together.
β
β
Lisa Kleypas (Blue-Eyed Devil (Travises, #2))
β
He has achieved success who has lived well, laughed often, and loved much;
Who has enjoyed the trust of pure women, the respect of intelligent men and the love of little children;
Who has filled his niche and accomplished his task;
Who has never lacked appreciation of Earth's beauty or failed to express it;
Who has left the world better than he found it,
Whether an improved poppy, a perfect poem, or a rescued soul;
Who has always looked for the best in others and given them the best he had;
Whose life was an inspiration;
Whose memory a benediction.
β
β
Bessie Anderson Stanley (More Heart Throbs Volume Two in Prose and Verse Dear to the American People And by them contributed as a Supplement to the original $10,000 Prize Book HEART THROBS)
β
This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.
β
β
Marilyn Monroe
β
People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life.
A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever? Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then leave.
A soul mates purpose is to shake you up, tear apart your ego a little bit, show you your obstacles and addictions, break your heart open so new light can get in, make you so desperate and out of control that you have to transform your life, then introduce you to your spiritual master...
β
β
Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
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
Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that youβve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you. When something wonderful happens, you canβt wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful. There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are. The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever. Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid itβs like being young again. Colours seem brighter and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didnβt exist at all. A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long dayβs work and always brings a smile to your face. In their presence, thereβs no need for continuous conversation, but you find youβre quite content in just having them nearby. Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon. You open your heart knowing that thereβs a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure thatβs so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.
β
β
Bob Marley
β
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
β
β
Marianne Williamson (A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles")
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
Heβs not perfect. You arenβt either, and the two of you will never be perfect. But if he can make you laugh at least once, causes you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can. He isnβt going to quote poetry, heβs not thinking about you every moment, but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break. Donβt hurt him, donβt change him, and donβt expect for more than he can give. Donβt analyze. Smile when he makes you happy, yell when he makes you mad, and miss him when heβs not there. Love hard when there is love to be had. Because perfect guys donβt exist, but thereβs always one guy that is perfect for you.
β
β
Bob Marley
β
I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart)I am never without it (anywhere
I go you go,my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)
I fear no fate (for you are my fate,my sweet)I want no world (for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart
I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)
β
β
E.E. Cummings
β
For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.
For poise, walk with the knowledge youβll never walk alone.
...
We leave you a tradition with a future.
The tender loving care of human beings will never become obsolete.
People even more than things have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed and redeemed.
Never throw out anybody.
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, youβll find one at the end of your arm.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands: one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
Your βgood old daysβ are still ahead of you, may you have many of them.
β
β
Sam Levenson (In One Era & Out the Other)
β
Promise Yourself
To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.
To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.
To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.
β
β
Christian D. Larson (Your Forces and How to Use Them)
β
You should date a girl who reads.
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.
Find a girl who reads. Youβll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. Sheβs the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? Thatβs the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn.
Sheβs the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because sheβs kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the authorβs making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.
Buy her another cup of coffee.
Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyceβs Ulysses sheβs just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.
Itβs easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, sheβs going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.
She has to give it a shot somehow.
Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.
Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.
Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.
If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. Sheβll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.
You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time sheβs sick. Over Skype.
You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasnβt burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.
Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then youβre better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.
Or better yet, date a girl who writes.
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Rosemarie Urquico