Mariva

“There are forms and ceremonies to be gone through, not so much to satisfy oneself, as to stop the world's mouth, without much stoppage there would be little satisfaction in life.”
― Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South

“I think perhaps you don't finish writing a book. You stop writing it.”
― Benjamin Dreyer, Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style

“Loyalty was a fine word until it began to taste like servitude, and by then, it was already too late to spit it out.”
― Katja Knox, We Were Made of Fire

“We become real only at the moment of our ruin”
― Ray Nayler, Palaces of the Crow