Darina

“Perhaps you're right, but everything I've learned is precious to me. No one can take my skills away–I value them with my life. Some may say that my knowledge is worthless, but it makes no difference to me." She turned from the balcony, fixing him with a piercing gaze. "I'm the one who decides what I value.”
― Touko Amekawa, 7th Time Loop: The Villainess Enjoys a Carefree Life Married to Her Worst Enemy! Vol. 1

“Having to worry about whether someone is healthy enough to tolerate my fierce hatred or criticism before I decide to blame them - that's what I call getting old.”
― Hiromi Kawakami, Herr Nakano und die Frauen

“Literature not only breaks the rules, but makes us realize that there are none.”
― Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them

“Intelligence requires first the gift of curiosity.  Without curiosity, who would ask questions?  Second, intelligence is the ability to synthesize.  Facts alone signify little.  Neither are they to be trusted.  Intelligence is the subtle arrangement of that which might or might not be true, the intuitive selection and the weaving of such selections into a pleasing whole that makes for meaning.  Third, intelligence has need of laughter.  Without laughter so much that is bitter and dark is allowed into being.  That which is bitter and dark may be clever, it may even be cunning, but it is never intelligent.  As for wisdom, wisdom is simple.  The wise are able to recognize, and to accept, that not only is one never intelligent enough, but that when all is said and done, one knows exactly nothing.”
― Ki Longfellow, Flow Down Like Silver: Hypatia of Alexandria