Jena

“He'd kept every note she'd written him, and kept his three or four favourites in the envelope in his pocket, always. And the envelope was gone. [...]
"What's wrong?" said Hava, who was watching him with rising impatience.
What was wrong was that Giddon was realizing, with a bright white clarity he'd never had before, that a person did not keep notes like that from a friend, carrying them around like something precious, like treasure, for no reason. It wasn't normal, it wasn't a routine thing to do, and Giddon had never wanted to be Bitterblue's confidant and counselor when she searched for a husband. He'd loved her.”
― Kristin Cashore, Winterkeep

“When you said my name . . . the stone within me suffered a crack. And I don't regret that it did, because I had forgotten how vital it is to be known for who you are, and not for who you pretend to be. I had forgotten how good it is to be seen, even with flaws and scars. I wanted you to see me.”
― Rebecca Ross, Dreams Lie Beneath

“I love the way you smile,’ he said with a dreamy sleepy expression. “I want to tell you to do it more often, but I don’t.”

I took in every inch of that flawless face. “Why?”

He didn’t even have his eyes open as he responded. “Because you don’t give it to everyone.” His cheek rested against mine, that sweaty chest did the same as he said, “And I don’t plan on sharing you.”
― Mariana Zapata, From Lukov with Love

“If you wish to colonize a land in which people are already living,” Jabotinsky wrote in 1925, “you must find a garrison for the land, or find a benefactor who will provide a garrison on your behalf.… Zionism is a colonizing venture and, therefore, it stands or falls on the question of armed forces.”
― Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017