Sarah

“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.”
― Oscar Wilde

“But perhaps the single most important factor in the improvement of the human condition over the past century has been the reproductive, political, and social empowerment of women, especially in developing countries. Now that women have increasing government over their own bodies—and more of a say in human affairs—humanity has doubled its workforce, improved its overall energetic efficiency, and cut its population growth.”
― Henry Gee, A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters

“Adults constantly raise the bar on smart children, precisely because they're able to handle it. The children get overwhelmed by the tasks in front of them and gradually lose the sort of openness and sense of accomplishment they innately have. When they're treated like that, children start to crawl inside a shell and keep everything inside. It takes a lot of time and effort to get them to open up again. Kids' hearts are malleable, but once they gel it's hard to get them back the way they were.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“There were times when the pressure to achieve happiness felt almost oppressive, as if happiness were something that everyone should and could attain, and that any sort of compromise in its pursuit was somehow your fault.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life