ella

“Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one's life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one's side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps…perhaps...love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.”
― Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of the Island

“One night of the year, as delicate and fleeting as a life in the universe.

Even though we struggle and howl against the brief flash of our lives, might we find something majestic in that brevity? Could there be a preciousness and value to existence stemming from the very fact of its temporary duration? And I think of the night-blooming cereus, a plant that looks like a leathery weed most of the year. But for one night each summer its flower opens to reveal silky white petals, which encircle yellow lacelike threads, and another whole flower like a tiny sea anemone within the outer flower. By morning, the flower has shriveled. One night of the year, as delicate and fleeting as a life in the universe.”
― Alan Lightman, The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew

“After all," Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string.”
― Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne Of Avonlea

“Blink, and half your life is gone.”
― Victoria Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue