“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”
― The Four Loves
― The Four Loves
“It was one of those times when the unsatisfactory complexity of the world fades far enough into the distance for the moment to become a thing in itself.”
―
―
“We are doorways, openings into something greater than ourselves, something that we don't understand and will never understand. We have nothing precious in and of ourselves. We are only precious in that we are part of something that is too big to know.”
― White Dog Fell from the Sky
― White Dog Fell from the Sky
“And I think of how time passes so differently for different people.”
― We Are Okay
― We Are Okay
“I had to google "mofo" and must confess to being slightly alarmed by the result.”
― Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
― Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Around the World in 80 Books
— 30947 members
— last activity 14 hours, 49 min ago
Reading takes you places. Where in the world will your next book take you? If you love world literature, translated works, travel writing, or explorin ...more
Natalie’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Natalie’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Biography, Contemporary, Cookbooks, Crime, Ebooks, Fiction, Horror, Humor and Comedy, Mystery, Non-fiction, Philosophy, Psychology, Romance, Science, Suspense, Thriller, and Travel
Polls voted on by Natalie
Lists liked by Natalie


























