James

“I will not swear, reader, that there was not something of repressed sarcasm both in the tone in which I uttered this sentence, and in the feeling that accompanied it. I had silently feared St. John till now, because I had not understood him. He had held me in awe, because he had held me in doubt. How much of him was saint, how much mortal, I cold not heretofore tell: but revelations were being made in this conference: analysis of his nature was proceeding before my eyes. I saw his fallibilities: I.comprehnded them. I understood that, sitting there where I did, on the bank of heath, and with that handsome form before me, I sat at the feet of a man, erring as I. The veil fell from his hardness and despotism. Having felt in him the presence of these qualities, I felt his imperfection, and took courage. I was with an equal-one with whom I might argue-one whom, if I saw good, I might resist.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“I learned years ago that it’s okay to do this. To seek out small spaces for me, to stop and imagine myself alone. People are too much sometimes. Friends, acquaintances, enemies, strangers. It doesn’t matter; they all crowd. Even if they’re all the way across the room, they crowd. I take a moment of silence and think:
I am here. I am okay.”
― Francesca Zappia, Eliza and Her Monsters

“The fragment was pure white, the edges blunt and worn. "That's what makes the raven. Like they use for roads down in the tidewater area. Oyster shells on bare rock...”
― Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven Boys

“How can I want something so badly but become so paralyzed every time I think about taking it?”
― Francesca Zappia, Eliza and Her Monsters