But if I hadn't fallen, I wouldn't have met you. - Becca Fitzpatrick, Hush, Hush

I was taught to strive not because there were any guarantees of success but because the act of striving is in itself the only way to keep faith with life. - Madeleine K. Albright, Madam Secretary: A Memoir

I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. - Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

The only value of wasted time is knowledge. - Monica Drake, Clown Girl

Unseen in the background, Fate was quietly slipping lead into the boxing-glove. - P.G. Wodehouse, Very Good, Jeeves!

Blessed is the influence of one true, loving human soul on another. - George Eliot

The one I felt and still feel most is lack of time. I used to have time to think, to reflect, my mind and I. We would sit together of an evening and listen to the inner melodies of the spirit, which one hears only in leisure moments when the words ofsome loved poet touch a deep, sweet chord in the soul that until then had been silent. But in college there is no time to commune with one's thoughts. One goes to college to learn, it seems, not to think. When one enters the portals of learning, one leaves the dearest pleasures--solitude, books and imagination--outside with the whispering pines. I suppose I ought to find some comfort in the thought that I am laying up treasures for future enjoyment, but I am improvident enough to prefer present joy to hoarding riches against a rainy day. - Helen Keller, The Story of My Life

Patience is a virtue, but there comes a moment when you must stop being patient and take the day by the throat and shake it. If it fights back; fine. I'd rather end up bloody at the end of the day, then unhurt with no progress made, no knowledge gained. I'd rather have a no, then nothing. I'd forgotten that about myself. - Laurell K. Hamilton

One word more. You look as if you thought it tainted you to beloved by me. You cannot avoid it. Nay, I, if I would, cannotcleanse you from it. But I would not, if I could. I have neverloved any woman before: my life has been too busy, my thoughtstoo much absorbed with other things. Now I love, and will love.But do not be afraid of too much expression on my part. - Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South

I've won Satan's lottery. - Christopher Moore, Bloodsucking Fiends

Don't bite his face, Eleanor told herself. It's disturbing and needy and never happens in situation comedies or movies that end with big kisses. - Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park

No matter who we are, no matter what our circumstances, our feelings and emotions are universal. And music has always been a great way to make people aware of that connection. It can help you open up a part of yourself and express feelings you didn't know you were feeling. It's risky to let that happen. But it's a risk you have to take-because only then will you find you're not alone. - Josh Groban

Ask yourself these three questions, Tatiana Metanova, and you will know who you are. Ask: What do believe in? What do you hope for? What do you love? - Paullina Simons, The Bronze Horseman

May Light always surround you;Hope kindle and rebound you.May your Hurts turn to Healing;Your Heart embrace Feeling.May Wounds become Wisdom;Every Kindness a Prism.May Laughter infect you;Your Passion resurrect you.May Goodness inspire your Deepest Desires.Through all that you Reach For, May your arms Never Tire. - D. Simone

You are the only one who has understood even a whisper of me, and I will tell you that I am the only person who has understood even a whisper of you. - Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated

Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen. - Willa Cather

I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder. - Steven Wright

I had not intended to love him; the reader knows I had wrought hard to extirpate from my soul the germs of love there detected; and now, at the first renewed view of him, they spontaneously revived, great and strong! He made me love him without looking at me. - Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

Until you step into the unknown, you don’t know what you’re made of. - Roy T. Bennett

We’re here, and then we’re gone, and it’s not about the time we’re here, but what we do with the time. - Rick Yancey, The 5th Wave