Ramona

“I have absolutely no pleasure in the stimulants in which I sometimes so madly indulge. It has not been in the pursuit of pleasure that I have periled life and reputation and reason. It has been the desperate attempt to escape from torturing memories, from a sense of insupportable loneliness and a dread of some strange impending doom.”
― Edgar Allan Poe

“Σίμωσε στο πιάνο και πήρε μερικά ακόρντα. Κείνη τη στιγμή΄έσπασε με κρότο μια χορδή κι έσβησε σ' ένα μακρόσυρτο και τρεμάμενο ήχο...
-Ακούς Νιέτοτσκα, ακούς; ρώτησε, ξαφνικά με μια εμπνευσμένη φωνή, δείχνοντας το πιάνο. Τεντώσανε πολύ, πάρα πολύ τούτη τη χορδή· δεν μπόρεσε άλλο να βαστάξει και πέθανε. Ακούς, τι λυπητερά που πεθαίνουν οι ήχοι!”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Netochka Nezvanova

“Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five
balls. The balls are called work, family, health, friends,
and integrity. And you're keeping all of them in the air.
But one day you finally come to understand that work is a
rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other
four balls-family, health, friends, integrity-are made of
glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably
scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered. And once you truly
understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have the
beginnings of balance in your life.”
― James Patterson, Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas

“At that moment, beauty itself struck me as a kind of painful melancholy.”
― Arthur Golden