Dante

“It is remarkable how much courage it takes to kiss someone, even when you are almost certain that person would very much like to be kissed by you. Doubt will knock you from the sky every time.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“Because I want you to know,” she says, “that there is life after survival.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“In the east," she says after a time, her gaze still downcast, "there is a tradition known as kintsukuroi. It is the practice of mending broken ceramic pottery using lacquer dusted with gold and silver and other precious metals. It is meant to symbolize that things can be more beautiful for having been broken."
"Why are you telling me this?" I ask.
At last she looks at me. Her irises are polished obsidian in the moonlight. "Because I want you to know," she says, "that there is life after survival.”
― Mackenzi Lee, The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue

“You make me want to hope, and that’s terrifying, because hope let’s you down. Hope hurts you.”
“Hope doesn’t hurt you, Pepper,” she whispers, “People do. Hope lightens you and lifts you and expands more room in your heart than you know what to do with. And sharing that hope with someone that will care for it and tend to it like it deserves, only lets it grow more and more.”
― Mazey Eddings, Late Bloomer