Comforting Quotes

“Listen to God with a broken heart. He is not only the doctor who mends it, but also the father who wipes away the tears.”
― Criss Jami

“We only need to be one person.
We only need to feel one existence.
We don't have to do everything in order to be everything, because we are already infinite. While we are alive we always contain a future of multifarious possibility.”
― Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

“For myself, I find I become less cynical rather than more--remembering my own sins and follies; and realize that men's hearts are not often as bad as their acts, and very seldom as bad as their words.”
― Tolkien J.R.R., The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

“Peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;

And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.

Thy friends do stand by thee...'
-Jesus the Christ”
― Joseph Smith Jr., The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

“When grief impounds our thinking and eats our brains, it seeps through all the cracks of our daily living. Only the soothing wind of comforting words may counter the withering twilight and the frostiness of darkness. ("All the words he always wanted to tell her.")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“It was as if hope had appeared out of nowhere to settle beside her and it wasn't going anywhere, it wasn't going to desert her now.”
― Alice Hoffman

“No matter what God's power may be, the first aspect of God is never that of the absolute Master, the Almighty. It is that of the God who puts himself on our human level and limits himself.”
― Jacques Ellul, Anarchy and Christianity

“Encourage, lift and strenthen one another. For the positive energy spread to one will be felt by us all.”
― Deborah Day

“My loneliness was an important part of my own little universe, not some pathological disease that needs to be gotten [sic] rid of.”
― Banana Yoshimoto, Amrita

“Thoughts by a graveside are too dark and deep to be sustained for any length of time. Sooner or later the hurt mind turns to the sun for healing, and this is as it should be, for otherwise, what future could any of us hope for, but madness?”
― Miss Read, Village School

“The child in me remembers all those great Christmases and the anticipation. It was the anticipation that grabbed me —waiting, waiting, waiting! And wondering if my dream would come true!”
― Larada Horner-Miller, Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir

“The afflicted don’t need comforting, they need what the comfortable have always had.”
― Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This

“Worn out with this torture of thought, I rose to my knees. Night was come, and her planets were risen: a safe, still night; too serene for the companionship of fear. We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us: and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence, His omnipresence. I had risen to my knees to pray for Mr. Rochester. Looking up, I, with tear-dimmed eyes, saw the mighty Milky Way. Remembering what it was--what countless systems there swept space like a soft trace of light--I felt the might and strength of God. Sure was I of His efficiency to save what He had made: convinced I grew that neither earth should perish, nor one of the souls it treasured. I turned my prayer to thanksgiving: the Source of Life was also the Saviour of spirits. Mr. Rochester was safe: he was God's, and by God would he be guarded.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“She knew the soothing power of a human touch on aching flesh. Knew the strange bond that formed when two creatures united in mutual need, one hurting, the other healing.”
― Susan Wiggs, At the King's Command

“Never underestimate the lingering effects of a dash of spontaneous comfort.”
― Gina Greenlee, Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments on the Road

“Soeur Marie Emelie"

Soeur Marie Emelie
is little and very old:
her eyes are onyx,
and her cheeks vermilion,
her apron wide and kind
and cobalt blue.

She comforts
generations and generations
of children,
who are
"new"
at the convent school.
When they are eight,
they are already up to her shoulder,
they grow up and go into the world,
she remains,
forever,
always incredibly old,
but incredibly never older...
She has an affinity with the hens,
When a hen dies,she sits down on a bench and cries,
she is the only grown-up, whose tears
are not frightening tears.
Children can weep without shame,
at her side...
Soeur Marie Emelie...
her apron as wide and kind
as skies on a summer day
and as clean and blue.”
― Caryll Houselander, Flowering Tree

“If you are struck by a bus, someone may steal your purse or wallet while you lie injured, but many more will come to your aid, trying to save your precious life. One person will call 911, and another will race down the street to alert a police officer on his or her beat. Someone else will take off his coat, fold it, and place it under your head, so that if these are indeed your last moments of life you will die in the small but real comfort of knowing that someone cared about you.”
― Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II

“Things are getting ugly
very quickly,
and I see the fault lines getting darker, thicker,
more deeply embedded in the ground where we tread.
I see clearly, quickly the ones who are expendable
for too many people who are still comfortable
or believe they are comfortable
or believe they are somehow exempt from the wrath
of those trying to turn back time
to a world of kings and lords and peasants,
artists begging for pennies town to town,
lordly religious righteousness,
and pagans and witches
and those who are disabled or just 'different'
burned at the stake.”
― Shellen Lubin

“And then she fled inside the bakery.
She exhaled once she was safely within. The scents of bread and cinnamon curled around her, and it was impossible to feel anxious. Being in the bakery felt like sitting by the nicest fireplace in the nicest reading room of the library. It was warm and welcoming, like the baker herself.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, The Spellshop

“After a while Heebie's tentative tail swishes and cautious sniffs around her cheeks. Dina shifted to her side so Heebie could crawl into the curve of her lap, kneading Dina's belly with her sharp little claws.
"What are you baking today, Madame Heebie?" Dina sniffed, tickling the cat under her chin as she kneaded. She liked to imagine Heebie in a little baker's hat and had once even tried knitting one--- but Heebie had hissed when Dina had tried to dress her in it. She wasn't sure how long she stayed there, petting Heebie's soft black fur, but slowly the pain in her chest started to loosen, as if gentle fingers were prying open a stiff knot thread by thread. It wasn't gone, but it was a little quieter for now.”
― Nadia El-Fassi, Best Hex Ever

“But the plum tree lowered its branches and fanned leaves out wide to protect her from the chill, and soon, she was snug in her little nest. The cabbage roses bathed her in the smells of honey and leaned in to sing that sweet song they always did--- the one Harriet could not name, could not even be certain she could truly hear or only felt inside her chest. And the bluebells arched into her touch as she traced a delicate finger up their bowed stems.”
― Chelsea Iversen, The Peculiar Garden of Harriet Hunt

“WEEK ONE: Summer Abundance

Almond-Infused Hot White Chocolate over Iced Berries
Cold English Summer Pudding
Fresh and Easy Strawberry Crème Brûlée
Peach Cobbler D'Ours with Ginger Ice Cream
Limoncello Sorbet and Wild Maine Blueberries


WEEK TWO: Simple Comforts

Classic Tarte Tatin
Warm Cherry Crisp with Vermont Maple Cream
Almond Biscotti Tiramisu
Old-Fashioned Gingerbread and Lemon Sauce
Spiced Pear and Roquefort Flan


WEEK THREE: A Multiple Chocolate Orgasm

Grand Marnière Chocolate Mousse
Torta Caprese
Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries
Profiteroles with Dark Chocolate Kahlúa Sauce
Quick Chocolate Soufflé”
― Sarah Strohmeyer, Sweet Love

“Seven Heinz packets dissolved in boiled New York tap. Mix with a plastic spoon in a Styrofoam cup. Serve with broken saltines, if available. Ketchup soup.
He sucked back tears as he stirred.
When the ghost materialized, a kid in his teens, Kostya just wanted to hug him.
That dish was proof--- the aftertastes didn't have to be sophisticated. They didn't even have to taste good. To anyone who tried this Campbell's Tomato knock-off without knowing what it was, it probably ranked somewhere between awful and inedible. But that was the thing about food you ate when you had nothing: the smallest things--- warmth, crunch, calories, someone making it for you, taking care of you even if only in some small way, or making it for yourself, proving that you could survive even when the world didn't want you to--- could make it the best thing you ever ate.”
― Daria Lavelle, Aftertaste

“When Richard said the word ‘baby’ somehow it didn’t seem condescending. It was gentle, kind.
Baby from Richard meant, ‘It’s okay not to be in charge right now, it’s okay to feel small.’
It meant, ‘It’s okay because I’ve got you.’
It meant, ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’
It meant, ‘It’s going to be okay.”
― Fae Quin, Bite Me! - You Know I Like It

“She turned her head, only to be met with the softest, warmest belly of Little Bee, who had curved her tiny body around the side of Rosemary's head, her little foot pressed against the side of Rosemary's neck. On her chest, weightless, the ghost cat was curled into a ball, watching Rosemary with her luminous eyes. As if she was saying, I'm here, go back to sleep.”
― Nadia El-Fassi, Love at First Fright

“I have everything i need in life, so why am i such a mean, small person? Why can't i be kinder than Satoru, who has so much less?”
― Hiro Arikawa, The Travelling Cat Chronicles

“And in the middle of it all, he felt the Maker's presence so palpably that the very wind seemed to be his breath and the snowflakes his touch. Janner knew he was not alone, nor could he be, however far he ran. Then he felt hands on his back and arms, and he heard Kalmar's voice in his ear, saying, "I'm here.”
― Andrew Peterson, The Monster in the Hollows [MONSTER IN THE HOLLOWS] [Paperback]

“Imagine a fellow in manacles: hungry, thirsty, flea-bitten, tormented by his mind in hideous ways. And you (unmanacled, free, comfortable, sane) walk past.

You cannot free him.

But you might comfort him.

I felt a new and powerful truth being beamed directly into me, by a vast, beneficent God, in the form of this unyielding directive:

Comfort.

Comfort, for all else is futility.”
― George Saunders, Vigil

“Knowledge can often be its own reward, but more often it reveals the inner truths of the outer world. It can raise a lamp and lift the shadows around us to show us the beauty within.”
― James Rollins, The Starless Crown

“Family is what makes a place your home.”
― Lilith Mireles, Eden Book One