Raven

“But friendship isn't one of life's little luxuries.

It's a necessity.

To go through the world without the closest of friends is like walking it with a missing leg, with no crutch to be found when you need that support.

Friends are the breath left to us when we run out of our own. They're the mirrors we need when we cannot see ourselves clearly. They point out our little flaws and, in times, the larger ones we must tend to. And, of course, they help us out of trouble as much as they help us into it. They are the truest form of reciprocation.

You may think me callow for describing friendship in this way. That I demean friendship--make it seem like an exchange. But you are wrong. Friends are the ones willing and most able to give anything--everything when they can. And you do the same. It is never said. But it is the unspoken agreement in friendship. A reciprocation of feelings--actions. Of time.

Which, I have learned over the course of my life, is an alternate way of spelling the word "love." People want time given to them--for them. For it's a kind of love the world is in all too short supply of. And for that, they will love you back. That is friendship.”
― R.R. Virdi, The Doors of Midnight

“May you never be the reason why someone who loved to sing, doesn’t anymore.
Or why someone who dressed so uniquely, now wears plain clothing.
Or why someone who always spoke so excitedly about their dreams, is now silent about them.
May you never be the reason someone gave up on a part of themselves because you were demotivating, non-appreciative, hypercritical, or even worse—sarcastic about it.”
― Sharouk Mustafa Ibrahim

“People can do terrible things when they feel safe and powerful.”
― Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

“All you can do, Rosemary – all any of us can do – is work to be something positive instead. That is a choice that every sapient must make every day of their life. The universe is what we make of it. It’s up to you to decide what part you will play.”
― Becky Chambers, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet