Michael > Michael's Quotes

“Some things down to the smallest of things, are worth the sum of all things”
― Rick Yancey, The Last Star

“Why wasn’t friendship as good as a relationship? Why wasn’t it even better? It was two people who remained together, day after day, bound not by sex or physical attraction or money or children or property, but only by the shared agreement to keep going, the mutual dedication to a union that could never be codified.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“Friendship was witnessing another’s slow drip of miseries, and long bouts of boredom, and occasional triumphs. It was feeling honored by the privilege of getting to be present for another person’s most dismal moments, and knowing that you could be dismal around him in return.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“Here I am frozen, when I deserve to burn.”
― E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

“Silence is a protective coating over pain.”
― E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

“There is not even a Scrabble word for how bad I feel.”
― E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

“Why do I have to tell a story?” I asked.
“Because if you don’t tell the story, someone else will tell it for you.”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Inheritance Games

“Nothing is certain but death and taxes.”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Inheritance Games

“Better the devil you do know than the devil you don't”
― Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Inheritance Games

“We’re here, and then we’re gone, and it’s not about the time we’re here, but what we do with the time.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“How do you rid the Earth of humans? Rid the humans of their humanity.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“I had it all wrong," he says. "Before I found you, I thought the only way to hold on was to find something to live for. It isn't. To hold on, you have to find something you're willing to die for.”
― Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave

“Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears?”
― Holly Jackson, As Good As Dead

“...we often mistake love for fireworks - for drama and dysfunction. But real love is very quiet, very still. It's boring, if seen from the perspective of high drama. Love is deep and calm - and constant.”
― Alex Michaelides, The Silent Patient

“Once you name something, it stops you seeing the whole of it, or why it matters. You focus on the word, which is just the tiniest part, really, the tip of an iceberg.”
― Alex Michaelides, The Silent Patient

“I had always thought that life was the actual thing, the natural thing, and that death was simply the end of living. Now, in this lifeless place, I saw with a terrible clarity that death was the constant, death was the base, and life was only a short, frgile dream. I was dead already. I had been born death, and what I thought was my life was just a game death let me play as it waited to take me. . .

Death has an opposite, but the opposite is not mere living. It is not courage or faith or human will. The opposite of death is love. How had I missed that? How does anyone miss that? Love is our only weapon. Only love can turn mere life into a miracle, and draw precious meaning from suffering and fear. For a brief, magical moment, all my fears lifted, and I knew that I would not let death control me. I would walk through the godforsaken country that separated me from my home with love and hope in my heart. I wouuld walk until I had walked all the life out of me, and when I fell I would die that much closer to my father.”
― Nando Parrado, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home

“As we used to say in the mountains, "Breathe. Breathe again. With every breath, you are alive." After all these years, this still the best advice I can give you: Savor your existence. Live every moment. Do not waste a breath.”
― Nando Parrado, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home

“You are angry at the God you were taught to believe in as a child. The God who is supposed to watch over you and protect you, who answers your prayers and forgives your sins. This God is just a story. Religions try to capture God, but God is beyond religion. The true God lies beyond our comprehension. We can't understand His will; He can't be explained in a book. He didn't abandon us and He will not save us. He has nothing to do with our being here. God does not change. He simply is. I don't pray to God for forgiveness or favors, I only pray to be closer to Him, and when I pray, I fill my heart with love. When I pray this way, I know that God is love. When I feel that love, I remember that we don't need angels or a heaven, because we are a part of God already.”
― Nando Parrado, Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home

“Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man's soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it.”
― Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

“What God asks of men, said [Billy] Graham, is faith. His invisibility is the truest test of that faith. To know who sees him, God makes himself unseen.”
― Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

“Though all three men faced the same hardship, their differing perceptions of it appeared to be shaping their fates. Louie and Phil's hope displaced their fear and inspired them to work toward their survival, and each success renewed their physical and emotional vigor. Mac's resignation seemed to paralyze him and the less he participated in their efforts to survive, the more he slipped. Though he did the least, as the days passed, it was he who faded the most. Louie and Phil's optimism, and Mac's hopelessness, were becoming self-fulfilling.”
― Laura Hillenbrand, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

“Tell the sun and stars hello for me.”
― Rick Riordan, The House of Hades

“Keep climbing,' he told himself.
'Cheeseburgers,' his stomach replied.
'Shut up,' he thought.
'With fries,' his stomach complained.”
― Rick Riordan, The House of Hades

“Y'all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska

“How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!" to a margin note written in her loop-heavy cursive: Straight & Fast.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska