Holly

“Little victories are everything in a world where worst-case scenarios are on an endless loop in your head.”
― Sara Barnard, A Quiet Kind of Thunder

“Here are three separate but similar things: shyness, introversion and social anxiety. You can have one, two or all three of these things simultaneously. A lot of the time people thing they're all the same thing, but that's just not true. Extroverts can be shy, introverts can be bold, and a condition like anxiety can strike whatever kind of social animal you are.

Lots of people are shy. Shy is normal. A bit of anxiety is normal. Throw the two together, add some brain-signal error - a NO ENTRY sign on the neural highway from my brain to my mouth perhaps, though no one really knows - and you have me.”
― Sara Barnard, A Quiet Kind of Thunder

“The less you say, the more weight your words will carry.
Don’t argue. Never deign to deny. Meet insults with laughter.

“You didn’t laugh at the Fjerdan captain,” I observed.
“That wasn’t an insult. It was a challenge,” he said. “Know the difference.”

Weakness is a guise. Wear it when they need to know you’re human, but never when you feel it.
Don’t wish for bricks when you can build from stone. Use whatever or whoever is in front of you.
Being a leader means someone is always watching you.
Get them to follow the little orders, and they’ll follow the big ones.
It’s okay to flout expectations, but never disappoint them.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Siege and Storm

“And there's nothing wrong with being a lizard either. Unless you were born to be a hawk.”
― Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone