steph

“The library is a whispering post. You don't need to take a book off a shelf to know there is a voice inside that is waiting to speak to you, and behind that was someone who truly believed that if he or she spoke, someone would listen. It was that affirmation that always amazed me. Even the oddest, most peculiar book was written with that kind of courage -- the writer's belief that someone would find his or her book important to read. I was struck by how precious and foolish and brave that belief is, and how necessary, and how full of hope it is to collect these books and manuscripts and preserve them. It declares that stories matter, and so does every effort to create something that connects us to one another, and to our past, and to what is still to come.”
― Susan Orlean, The Library Book

“Survival, true survival of the body and soul, requires creativity, freedom of thought, collaboration. You might have time and I might have land. You might have ideas and I might have strength. You might have a tomato and I might have a knife. We need each other. We need to say: I honor the things that you respect and I value the things you cherish. I am not better than you. You are not better than me.”
― Clemantine Wamariya, The Girl Who Smiled Beads: A Story of War and What Comes After

“My heart isn't breaking because I can't have you."

"Don't say that. I saw the way you were looking at me just now. We can quibble over the precise words to use. But don't tell me I haven't hurt you."

"My heart's not breaking because I can't have you," he insisted. "It's breaking because you think you're a hard thing, because you imagine that what I see in you is an illusion. It isn't.”
― Courtney Milan, The Countess Conspiracy

“Choosing to love—despite all the ways that people let you down, and disappear, and break your heart. Knowing everything we know about how hard life is and choosing to love, anyway.. That’s not weakness, that’s courage.”
― Katherine Center, Things You Save in a Fire