spooky blossom.

“If she be all tenderness, she will die. If she survive, the tenderness will either be crushed out of her, or--and the outward semblance is the same--crushed so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself more. The latter is perhaps the truest theory.”
― Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

“It had occurred to me I was not courageous, had never been brave, only arrogant or unthinking.”
― Tanith Lee, The Birthgrave

“And we cannot keep our balance. Myth gives way to Reason. Revelation to Orthodoxy. We must dance or go mad.”
― Tom Cheetham, Green Man, Earth Angel: The Prophetic Tradition and the Battle for the Soul of the World

“I do not think I was afraid. There must be substance to breed fear, and I was hollow.”
― Tanith Lee, The Birthgrave