Ria Smart

“While society sometimes carelessly refers to sociopathic, narcissistic behavior as “shameless,” people with sociopathic narcissism are so burdened by neurotic shame that they can't empathically feel their impact on other people, or even feel their own authentic desire for connection.”
― Carolyn Elliott, Existential Kink: Unmask Your Shadow and Embrace Your Power

“We are bleeding at the roots, because we are cut off from the earth and sun and stars, and love is a grinning mockery, because, poor blossom, we plucked it from its stem on the tree of Life, and expected it to keep on blooming in our civilised vase on the table.”
― Sharon Blackie, If Women Rose Rooted: A Journey to Authenticity and Belonging

“My grandfather, like many leaders, was not content with just sharing his message; he had to control how people lived it. This is the line where even a good philosophy can become a violation.”
― Faith Jones, Sex Cult Nun: Growing Up in and Breaking Away from the Secretive Religious Family That Changed My Life

“Memories are comfy too, they are swaddling bands, they wrap you up warm like a mummy. What moment is there in life that is not already a memory?”
― Violette Leduc, The Lady and the Little Fox Fur