Ashley > Ashley's Quotes

“Until you step into the unknown, you don’t know what you’re made of.”
― Roy T. Bennett

“For as it turns out, one can revisit the past quite pleasantly, as long as one does so expecting nearly every aspect of it to have changed.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“The principle here is that a new generation owes a measure of thanks to every member of the previous generation. Our elders planted fields and fought in wars; they advanced the arts and sciences, and generally made sacrifices on our behalf. So by their efforts, however humble, they have earned a measure of our gratitude and respect.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“Manners are not like bonbons, Nina. You may not choose the ones that suit you best; and you certainly cannot put the half-bitten ones back in the box.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“For what matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“It is a well-known fact that of all the species on earth Homo sapiens is among the most adaptable. Settle a tribe of them in a desert and they will wrap themselves in cotton, sleep in tents, and travel on the backs of camels; settle them in the Arctic and they will wrap themselves in sealskin, sleep in igloos, and travel by dog-drawn sled. And if you settle them in a Soviet climate? They will learn to make friendly conversation with strangers while waiting in line; they will learn to neatly stack their clothing in their half of the bureau drawer; and they will learn to draw imaginary buildings in their sketchbooks. That is, they will adapt.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“No matter how much time passes, those we have loved never slip away from us entirely.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“...the tenure of friendships has never been governed by the passage of time.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“Fate does not take sides. It is fair-minded and generally prefers to maintain some balance between the likelihood of success and failure in all our endeavors.”
― Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow

“We need to think about the fact that we are all more than the worst thing we have done.”
― Anthony Ray Hinton, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row

“He was a poor man in a criminal justice system that treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent.”
― Anthony Ray Hinton, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row

“Human bodies are very complicated. Inside us are all kinds of genes, hormones, and chemicals that affect our moods, and sometimes people have a certain combination of those things that makes them feel sad.”
― Glendy Vanderah, Where the Forest Meets the Stars

“You stand for what is right, Lina, without the expectation of gratitude or reward.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Sometimes there is such beauty in awkwardness. There's love and emotion trying to express itself, but at the time, it just ends up being awkward.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“A wrongdoing doesn't give us the right to do wrong.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“Whether love of friend, love of country, love of God, or even love of enemy—love reveals to us the truly miraculous nature of the human spirit.”
― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray

“You are the gull, Jo, strong and wild, fond of the storm and the wind, flying far out to sea, and happy all alone.”
― Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

“We are all implicated when we allow other people to be mistreated. An absence of compassion can corrupt the decency of a community, a state, a nation. Fear and anger can make us vindictive and abusive, unjust and unfair, until we all suffer from the absence of mercy and we condemn ourselves as much as we victimize others. The closer we get to mass incarceration and extreme levels of punishment, the more I believe it's necessary to recognize that we all need mercy, we all need justice, and-perhaps-we all need some measure of unmerited grace.”
― Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy

“Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn't know a thing about life.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, The Secret Life of Bees

“True beauty is rare, and seldom recognized by the one who possesses it.”
― Francine Rivers, A Voice in the Wind

“Never doubt God in the darkness what he has given us in the light.”
― Francine Rivers, A Voice in the Wind

“Can you see air you breathe? Can you see the force that moves the tides or changes the seasons or sends the birds to a winter haven?" Her eyes welled. "Can Rome with all its knowledge be so foolish? Oh Marcus, you can't carve God in stone. You can't limit him to a temple. You can't imprison him on a mountaintop. Heaven is his throne; earth, his footstool. Everything you see is his. Empires will rise and empires will fall. Only God prevails.”
― Francine Rivers, A Voice in the Wind

“The miracle would have been if those arrogant fools with the fate of the country in their hands had listened in time to the voices of the experts. Now it was too late.”
― Sofía Segovia, The Murmur of Bees

“Tell them to walk in the shade. To listen with their eyes, to see with their skin, and to feel with their ears, because life speaks to us all and we just need to know and wait to listen to it, see it, feel it.”
― Sofía Segovia, The Murmur of Bees

“It is in the deepest darkness that one sees things most clearly.”
― Sofía Segovia, The Murmur of Bees

“We walk without looking back, because on this journey, all we care about is our destination.”
― Sofía Segovia, The Murmur of Bees

“I do not wish to make light of the pain they must have felt at the loss of loved ones. Anyone who has been bereaved knows that the survivor’s recovery is a torturous road.”
― Sofía Segovia, The Murmur of Bees

“Then he knew what it feels like when one’s heart really stops. A beat, two. Then he knew what a heart feels when it misses a beat, two, then remembers that, to live, it must beat again, even if the first beat hurts as if the chest has been split open. He knew the true horror that one feels when, without needing to be asleep, one falls endlessly; when the world collapses. He knew how one feels when, without warning, an uncontrollable pain invades the body, so great that it cannot be contained, so great that, in order to go from that moment to the next, in order to survive, one must let it out or cease to exist.”
― Sofía Segovia, The Murmur of Bees

“But let me tell you what I know, what I’ve concluded: it doesn’t matter whether time passes slowly or quickly. What you can be sure of is that, in the end, all you want is to have more.”
― Sofía Segovia, The Murmur of Bees

“Still, in January 1919, in Linares, these details were of little interest, because absences were not measured in numbers or statistics: they were measured in grief.”
― Sofía Segovia, The Murmur of Bees