shreyas ★彡

“When there was but a gray speck of his heart left, he bent down and kissed her again, briefly, a brush of lips. A grain of dust may contain a universe inside, and it was the same for him. Within that gray speck there lived his love and he gave it to Casiopea, for her to see. He'd fallen in love slowly and quietly, and it was a quiet sort of love, full of phrases left unsaid, laced with dreams. He had imagined himself a man for her, and he allowed her to see the extent of this man, and he gave her this speck of heart, which was a man, to hold for a moment before taking it back the second before it faded.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Gods of Jade and Shadow

“It was as if she had willed a part of her soul into his body, concealed it there. The best part of her, the part that was young and happy. There it had remained, safe.”
― Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Beautiful Ones

“To be truly brave, first you must be afraid. And to be afraid, you must have something you cannot bear to lose.”
― Lex Croucher, Gwen & Art Are Not in Love

“I’d always understood “strength in tranquility” and taken “tranquility in strength” to mean that if one was strong, one could make the tranquility one needed. But now, twisting and turning through the corn maze, I began to see it differently, that “tranquility in strength” meant having the strength to keep one’s tranquility of mind, no matter what the world brought. It meant being tranquil—peaceful—even when one was strong, not bullying or picking fights.”
― Katherine Addison, The Witness for the Dead