Danielle Janzen

“It is an odd thing, to lose faith in the beliefs you once held firmly. How strange it is to have carried your convictions like a set of keys, only to realize they will not open any doors.”
― Elif Shafak, There Are Rivers in the Sky

“Better to be a gentle soul than one consumed by anger, resentment and vengeance. Anyone can wage war, but maintaining peace is a difficult thing.”
― Elif Shafak, There Are Rivers in the Sky

“America has been just, and it has perpetuated injustice. We have been peaceful, and we have perpetrated acts of violence. We have been—and are—good. And we have done terrible things to people who didn’t deserve them. It has been the land of the free while simultaneously sanctioning oppression. Such is often the experience of any government run by fallible human beings. Sometimes we surprise ourselves in our capacity for greatness, and sometimes the weight of regret wraps around us like a chain.”
― Sharon McMahon, The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History

“It wasn’t as if I’d grewn up in Los Angeles - I’d seen plenty of farms in my day. But never had I seen a place that made the tightness in my chest relax. The order in the rows of trees and the dark green of the lush grass beneath them soothed me like a hand brushing against my forehead.”
― Ann Patchett, Tom Lake