Never Judge

“Never judge someone by their relatives.”

~ Charles Martin, Chasing Fireflies

Bathsheba Loved Troy

“Bathsheba loved Troy in the way that only self-reliant women love 

when they abandon their self-reliance. 

When a strong woman recklessly throws away her strength 

she is worse than a weak woman who has never any strength to throw away. 

One source of her inadequacy is the novelty of the occasion. 

She has never had practice in making the best of such a condition. 

Weakness is doubly weak by being new.”

~ Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd

Theresa

“Theresa, I know there's a part of you that believes you can change someone, 

but the reality is that you can't. 

You can change yourself, and Garrett can change himself, 

but you can't do it for him.”

~ Nicholas Sparks, Message in a Bottle

People

“People generally didn't cheat in good relationships.”

~ Emily Giffin, Something Blue

I Know I'm Not Going to Be

“I know I'm not going to be in your head all the time.

 But once you know me, 

I'll be forever in your heart. ”

~ Crystal Woods, Write like no one is reading

If You're Right & I'm Not

“If you're right & I'm not, 

I'm going to be hell to live with, she said. 

So, you better think about that 

next time you want to be right. ”

~ Brian Andreas

But I Think We Both Knew

“But I think we both knew, even then, 

that what we had was something even more rare, 

and even more meaningful.

 I was going to be his friend 

and was going to show him possibilities.

 And he, in turn, would become someone 

I could trust more than myself.”

~ David Levithan, Boy Meets Boy

Time Has Its Revenges

“Time has its revenges, but revenge seems so often sour. 

Wouldn’t we all do better not trying to understand,

 accepting the fact that no human being will ever understand another,

 not a wife with a husband, nor a parent a child?

 Perhaps that’s why men have invented God –

 a being capable of understanding. ”

~ Graham Greene, The Quiet American

Women Writers

“Women writers make for rewarding (and efficient) lovers. 

They are clever liars to fathers and husbands; 

yet they never hold their tongues too long, 

nor keep ardent typing fingers still.”

~ Roman Payne, Rooftop Soliloquy

It Seems To Me

“It seems to me that if you place music 

(and books, probably, and films, and plays, 

and anything that makes you feel) 

at the center of your being, 

then you can’t afford to sort out your love life, 

start to think of it as the finished product. 

You’ve got to pick at it, 

keep it alive and in turmoil, 

you’ve got to pick at it and unravel it 

until it all comes apart

 and you’re compelled to start all over again.

 Maybe we all live life at too high a pitch, 

those of us who absorb emotional things all day,

 and as a consequence we can never feel merely content:

 we have to be unhappy, or ecstatically,

 head-over-heels happy, 

and those states are difficult to achieve 

within a stable, solid relationship.”

~ Nick Hornby

If I Lived A Million Lives

“If I lived a million lives, 

I would've felt a million feelings 

and I still would've fallen a million times for you.”

~ Robert M. Drake

Madness

“Madness and chaos are self-destructing 

but overthinking is the suicide.”

~ Robert M. Drake

Truth

“Truth builds trust.”

~ Marilyn Suttle

You Know Why

“You know why people pair up into couples? 

Because being a human is fucking terrifying. 

But it's a hell of a lot easier if you're not doing it by yourself.”

~ Alice Oseman, Loveless

You Get Lonely Is What It Is

“You get lonely, is what it is. 

A person's not supposed to go through life with absolutely nobody. 

It's not normal. 

The longer you go by yourself the weirder you get, 

and the weirder you get the longer you go by yourself. 

It's a loop and you gotta do something to get out of it.”

~ Jim Shepard