Nancy > Nancy's Quotes

“But, alas, he never really belonged in either place, the sad fate, I am afraid, of those whose hearts break and then mend in crooked ways.”
― Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux

“The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
― Robert Frost

“Nothing is as tedious as the limping days,
When snowdrifts yearly cover all the ways,
And ennui, sour fruit of incurious gloom,
Assumes control of fate’s immortal loom”
― Charles Baudelaire, Paris Spleen

“When there is suffering, we look for a reason. That reason is easiest found within oneself.”
― Clare Vanderpool, Moon Over Manifest

“You can't replace one hurt with another one. You just end up with double hurts.”
― Vince Vawter, Paperboy

“If you must err, do so on the side of audacity.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings

“Everything she knew came from living on the scarce side of mercy.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Invention of Wings

“I’m cold,' Snowden said softly, 'I’m cold.'
'You’re going to be all right, kid,' Yossarian reassured him with a grin. 'You’re going to be all right.'
'I’m cold,' Snowden said again in a frail, childlike voice. 'I’m cold.'
'There, there,' Yossarian said, because he did not know what else to say. 'There, there.'
'I’m cold,' Snowden whimpered. 'I’m cold.'
'There, there. There, there.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

“He found himself understanding the wearisomeness of this life, where every path was an improvisation and a considerable part of one's waking life was spent watching one's feet.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies

“October extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds and driving rain and November arrived, cold as frozen iron, with hard frosts every morning and icy drafts that bit at exposed hands and faces.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

“Easter says that love is more powerful than death, bigger than the dark, bigger than cancer, bigger even than airport security lines.”
― Anne Lamott, Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace

“It’s very easy, under conditions of artificial but continually escalating obligation, to find yourself organizing your life around practices you find ridiculous and possibly indefensible. Women have known this intimately for a long time.”
― Jia Tolentino, Trick Mirror

“It hurts to want it all, so many things that can't coexist within the same life.”
― Emily Henry, People We Meet on Vacation

“I don’t regret anything I’ve ever done in life, any choice that I’ve made. But I’m consumed with regret for the things I didn’t do, the choices I didn’t make, the things I didn’t say. We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear most. Failure is an answer. Rejection is an answer. Regret is an eternal question you will never have the answer to. “What if…” “If only…” “I wonder what would have…” You will never, never know, and it will haunt you for the rest of your days.”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

“householder, a mother, a grandmother has precious duties that don’t cease, that go on till her dying day.”
― Abraham Verghese, The Covenant of Water

“The sailors dropped to their knees. I would not be able to bear it, I thought. I would seize him, hold him to me. But I only embraced him a final time, pressing hard as if to set him into my skin. Then I watched him take his place among them, stand upon the prow, outlined against the sky. The light darted silver from the waves. I lifted my hand in blessing and gave my son to the world.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe