Elena

“Conscience does make cowards of us all.”
― Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

“Love follows you. It goes where you go. It doesn’t know about social divides or distance or common sense, it doesn’t even stop when the person you love does. It does what it wants. Even if what you want is to not be in love.”
― Abby Jimenez, Part of Your World

“but an atmosphere of war had settled over the country like a plague. The life and welfare of the individual counted for nothing. People had ceased to be human beings—they were classified according to military criteria as soldiers, fit for military service, unfit for military service, and enemies.”
― Erich Maria Remarque, The Night in Lisbon

“It was the beginning of what I thought I had lost. Time—you know that—is diluted death, a poison administered slowly, in harmless doses. At first it stimulates us and even makes us feel immortal—but drop by drop and day by day it grows stronger and destroys our blood. Even if we wanted to buy back our youth at the price of the years that are still ahead of us, we couldn't; the acid of time has changed us, the chemical combination isn't the same any more. It would take a miracle. That miracle happened in Zurich." He stood still, looking down at the sparkling city. "This is the most terrible night in my life," he said slowly. "I want to remember it as the happiest. Shouldn't memory be able to do that? It must. A miracle is never perfect when it happens; there are always little disappointments. But once it's gone for good and nothing can change it, memory could make it perfect, and then it would never change. If I can just call it to life now, won't it always stay the same? Won't it stay with me as long as I live?”
― Erich Maria Remarque, The Night in Lisbon