Nicole Sweeney

“Some mornings, she’d wake and vow, Today, I will get it right. I won’t be such an awful mess of a girl. I won’t lose my temper or make unkind remarks. I won’t go too far with a joke and feel the room go quiet with disapproval. I’ll be good and kind and sensible and patient. The sort everyone loves. But by evening, her good intentions would have unraveled. She’d say the wrong thing or talk a little too loudly. She’d take a dare she shouldn’t, just to be noticed. Perhaps Mabel was right, and she was selfish. But what was the point of living so quietly you made no noise at all? “Oh, Evie, you’re too much,” people said, and it wasn’t complimentary. Yes, she was too much. She felt like too much inside all the time. So why wasn’t she ever enough?”
― Libba Bray, The Diviners

“The real psychological truth is this: If you’ve got nothing to hide, you are nothing.”
― Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

“I began to experience the most powerful advantage of money: the ability to think of things besides money.”
― Tara Westover, Educated

“There’s glory and honour in being chosen. But not much room for free will”
― Elizabeth Wein, Code Name Verity