Michelle > Michelle's Quotes

“I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness.”
― C.S. Lewis

“After all, reading is arguably a far more creative and imaginative process than writing; when the reader creates emotion in their head, or the colors of the sky during the setting sun, or the smell of a warm summer's breeze on their face, they should reserve as much praise for themselves as they do for the writer - perhaps more.”
― Jasper Fforde, The Well of Lost Plots

“Sometimes we think people are like lottery tickets, that they're there to make our most absurd dreams come true.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

“Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

“Bea says that the art of reading is slowly dying, that it's an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.”
― Rebecca West

“In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn't a perfect world. The problem is people who think it is.”
― Neal Shusterman, Unwind

“You see, a conflict always begins with an issue - a difference of opinion, an argument. But by the time it turns into a war, the issue doesn't matter anymore, because now it's about one thing and one thing only: how much each side hates the other.”
― Neal Shusterman, Unwind

“Words don't hurt you." Which is one of the hugest criminal lies perpetrated by adults against children in this world. Because words hurt more than any physical pain.”
― Neal Shusterman, UnWholly

“The sad truth about humanity...is that people believe what they're told. Maybe not the first time, but by the hundredth time, the craziest of ideas just becomes a given.”
― Neal Shusterman, UnWholly

“Sure, when you're in the midst of your own suffering, it's easy to convince yourself that you're no good—but we are all tested in this life...The measure of a man is not how much he suffers in the test, but how he comes out at the end.”
― Neal Shusterman, UnWholly

“People see what they wish to see. And in most cases, what they are told that they see.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“The finest of pleasures are always the unexpected ones.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“Life takes us to unexpected places sometimes. The future is never set in stone, remember that.”
― Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“Ghosts don't haunt us. That's not how it works. They're present among us because we won't let go of them.”
― Sue Grafton, M is for Malice

“That we have some history together that hasn’t happened yet.”
― Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

“Everyone we've lost, we'll find. Or they'll find us.”
― Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

“I'm always happy," Sasha said. "Sometimes I just forget.”
― Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad

“Of course it's alright for librarians to smell of drink.”
― Barbara Pym, Less Than Angels

“Do I have to talk to insane people?"
"You're a librarian now. I'm afraid it's mandatory.”
― Jasper Fforde, The Woman Who Died a Lot

“People always say change takes time. It's true, but really it's people who change people, and then those people have to decide if they really want to stay the new people that they're changed into.”
― Kiese Laymon, Long Division

“A man should cause an impression," she said. "He should leave you with something to think about. Without that, there's no magic.”
― Daniel Alarcón, At Night We Walk in Circles

“You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“There was a lump in her throat as she watched him fidget with the buttons on his vest, and it struck her as the truest form of kindness, the most basic sort of love: to be worried about the one who was worrying about you.”
― Jennifer E. Smith, The Geography of You and Me

“Emptiness is life without freedom, Darrow. Emptiness is living chained by fear, fear of loss, of death.”
― Pierce Brown, Red Rising

“Home isn't where you're from, it's where you find light when all grows dark.”
― Pierce Brown, Golden Son

“We are not our station in life. We are us—the sum of what we’ve done, what we want to do, and the people who we keep close.”
― Pierce Brown, Golden Son

“In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.”
― Alex Haley

“The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.”
― Victor Hugo