Soph

“You will be in positions that matter. Positions in which you can decide the
nature and quality of other people’s lives. Your errors may be irrevocable.
So when you enter those places of trust, or power, dream a little before you
think, so your thoughts, your solutions, your directions, your choices about
who lives and who doesn’t, about who flourishes and who doesn’t will be
worth the very sacred life you have chosen to live. You are not helpless.
You are not heartless. And you have time.”
― Toni Morrison, The Source of Self-Regard: Selected Essays, Speeches, and Meditations

“I remember these things clearly because that was how my mother loved you, not through white lies and constant verbal affirmation, but in subtle observations of what brought you joy, pocketed away to make you feel comforted and cared for without even realizing it.”
― Michelle Zauner, Crying in H Mart

“Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.”
― Vladimir Nabokov

“I saw what I had been fighting for: It was for me, a scared child, who had run away a long time ago to what I had imagined was a safer place. And hiding in this place, behind my invisible barriers, I knew what lay on the other side: Her side attacks. Her secret weapons. Her uncanny ability to find my weakest spots. But in the brief instant that I had peered over the barriers I could finally see what was finally there: an old woman, a wok for her armor, a knitting needle for her sword, getting a little crabby as she waited patiently for her daughter to invite her in.”
― Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club