Valarie

“With so much reading ahead of you, the temptation might be to speed up. But in fact it’s essential to slow down and read every word. Because one important thing that can be learned by reading slowly is the seemingly obvious but oddly underappreciated fact that language is the medium we use in much the same way a composer uses notes, the way a painter uses paint. I realize it may seem obvious, but it’s surprising how easily we lose sight of the fact that words are the raw material out of which literature is crafted.”
― Francine Prose, Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them

“There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher.”
― Henry van Dyke

“The strength of a woman is not measured by the impact that all her hardships in life have had on her; but the strength of a woman is measured by the extent of her refusal to allow those hardships to dictate her and who she becomes.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“As C. S. Lewis points out, the journey to hell is a process, which can begin with something as apparently innocuous as a grumbling mood.”
― Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism