#iii

It is of great importance, when we begin to practise prayer, not to let ourselves be frightened by our own thoughts. ↗

— Teresa of Ávila

#meditation #mind #prayer #life

He was so much in love with me that I could have asked him for the moon and stars, and he would have gathered them for me. ↗

— Carolyn Meyer

#henry-viii #love

I see now why they call it 'falling' in love. It's a tumble that catches you off guard, surprises you, scares you, bumps you around, sends you spinning into the dark. But eventually, you level out, and enjoy the rush of free fall. ↗

— Joseph B. Phillips III

#jason #jason-phillips #joseph #joseph-b-phillips-iii #love

And – I think you know, don’t you? – that I love you, Anne.’ I feel as if I have been living in a loveless world for too long. The last tender face I saw was my father’s when he sailed for England. ‘You do? Truly?’ ‘I do.’ He rises to his feet and pulls me up to stand beside him. My chin comes to his shoulder, we are both dainty, long-limbed, coltish: well-matched. I turn my face into his jacket. ‘Will you marry me?’ he whispers. ‘Yes,’ I say. ↗

— Philippa Gregory

#love #marriage #match #richard-iii #love

KING RICHARD. I have learn'd that fearful commenting Is leaden servitor to dull delay; Delay leads impotent and snail-pac'd beggary. Then fiery expedition be my wing, Jove's Mercury, and herald for a king! Go, muster men. My counsel is my shield. We must be brief when traitors brave the field. ↗

— William Shakespeare

#men

Be still, my soul, be still; the arms you bear are brittle, Earth and high heaven are fixt of old and founded strong. Think rather,--call to thought, if now you grieve a little, The days when we had rest, O soul, for they were long. Men loved unkindness then, but lightless in the quarry I slept and saw not; tears fell down, I did not mourn; Sweat ran and blood sprang out and I was never sorry: Then it was well with me, in days ere I was born. Now, and I muse for why and never find the reason, I pace the earth, and drink the air, and feel the sun. Be still, be still, my soul; it is but for a season: Let us endure an hour and see injustice done. Ay, look: high heaven and earth ail from the prime foundation; All thoughts to rive the heart are here, and all are vain: Horror and scorn and hate and fear and indignation-- Oh why did I awake? when shall I sleep again? ↗

— A.E. Housman

#birth #death #emotion #grief #heaven-and-earth

Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drenched our teeples, drowned the cocks! You sulphurour and thought-executing fires, Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts, Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder, Strike flat the thick rotundity o' the world! Crack nature's molds, all germens spill at once That make ingrateful man! ↗

— William Shakespeare

#storm-scene #nature

I grieve to leave Thornfield: I love Thornfield - I love it, because I have lived in it a full and delightful life, -momentarily at least. I have not been trampled on. I have not been petrified. I have not been buried with inferior minds, and excluded from every glimpse of communion with what is bright and energetic, and high. I have talked, face to face, with what I reverence; with what I delight in, -with an original, a vigorous, an expanded mind. I have known you, Mr. Rochester; and it strikes me with terror and anguish to feel I absolutely must be torn from you for ever. I see the necessity of departure; and it is like looking on the necessity of death. ↗

— Charlotte Brontë

#death

Do you not know I am a woman? when I think, I must speak. ↗

— William Shakespeare

#woman

I was born to be your rival,' she [Anne] said simply. 'And you mine. We're sisters, aren't we? ↗

— Philippa Gregory

#henry-viii #historical-fiction #mary-boleyn #historical