Esther

“The forest has a different quality now, girded with winter. It no longer dozes among its autumn finery like a king in silken bedclothes, but holds itself in tension, watchful and waiting.”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

“She hesitated; touching someone meant giving part of herself away, a piece she never got back.”
― Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing

“What good is a life lived as if it made no difference at all to the great life of the world? A sadder thing I cannot imagine. Why should not a mother say to herself, if I raise this child aright, if I love and care for her, she shall have a life that brings joy to those around her, and thus I have changed the world? Why should not the farmer that plants a seed say to his neighbour, this seed that I plant today will feed someone, and that is how I change the world today?

[…]

This is life. And no one has time not to think of such things. Each creature in the world should consider this thing, every moment of the heart’s beating. Otherwise, what is the point of arising each day?”
― Robin Hobb, Royal Assassin

“Blink and you’re twenty-eight, and everyone else is now a mile down the road, and you’re still trying to find it, and the irony is hardly lost on you that in wanting to live, to learn, to find yourself, you’ve gotten lost.”
― V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue