Lily

“There are things in your past, preserved in memory almost by chance, that only later on, because of the course your own life takes, come to seem proleptic, or significant, or fascinating, when other things don’t.”
― John Crowley, And Go Like This: Stories

“To look at oneself and find it hideous, what a job! But then, when she hadn’t been hideous, had she sat around and stared at herself like this? Not much! A proper body’s not an object, not an implement, not a belonging to be admired, it’s just you, yourself. Only when it’s no longer you, but yours, a thing owned, do you worry about it— Is it in good shape? Will it do? Will it last?”
― Ursula K. Le Guin, The Day Before the Revolution

“It was one of those almost fall days, when the sky gets pink too soon and the weakest leaves are ripped loose early by the wind.”
― Andrew McMahon, Three Pianos: A Memoir

“Wood is soft compared to steel, but the sharp steel is dulled as it chops, and the sap of the tree will rust and pit it. The mighty axe does violence to the helpless tree, and is harmed by it. So it is with men, though the harm is in the spirit.”
― Robert Jordan, The Eye of the World