Lacey

“Love just makes everything else in life easier to bear. It’s like having an army on your side. But love itself isn’t easy. Most people have to fight for it, they fight to keep it. Love is a war, and half the time you’re battling your own fucking self.”
― Karina Halle, Before I Ever Met You

“It bothers me. There’s a stigma, especially for guys. Especially for guys who are about to hit thirty. It’s not that I want to be a . . . you know . . .” He can’t bring himself to verbalize it. “But it’s hard to meet people when you have social anxiety as bad as I do. I panic. Or I want to say one thing, be a certain way, but it gets all tangled up on its way out of my mouth. A pumpkin trying to be flowers and coming off like a cactus. It’s frustrating.

“You’re much more flowers than you are cactus,” I tell him, meaning every word. I hope he believes it. “But for what it’s worth, pumpkins are the best.”
― Sarah Hogle, Twice Shy

“But at the end of the day", she says, and puts her hand outside the open window, letting the wind pass through her fingers, "being myself is enough. I'm enough.”
― Christina Lauren, Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating

“You know, people come to Italy for all sorts of reasons, but when they stay, it's for the same two things."
"What?"
"Love and gelato.”
― Jenna Evans Welch, Love & Gelato