#lit

Reality is a cliché from which we escape by metaphor. ↗

— Wallace Stevens

#metaphor #reality #imagination

The vast majority of us imagine ourselves as like literature people or math people. But the truth is that the massive processor known as the human brain is neither a literature organ or a math organ. It is both and more. ↗

— John Green

#comparison #literature #math #imagination

Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us, and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning and purpose to our lives. ↗

— Brené Brown

#connection #meaning #power #purpose #spirituality

...Nameless, unknown to me as you were, I couldn't forget your voice!' 'For how long?' 'O - ever so long. Days and days.' 'Days and days! Only days and days? O, the heart of a man! Days and days!' 'But, my dear madam, I had not known you more than a day or two. It was not a full-blown love - it was the merest bud - red, fresh, vivid, but small. It was a colossal passion in embryo. It never returned. ↗

— Thomas Hardy

#reality-bites #love

It's not at all hard to understand a person; it's only hard to listen without bias. ↗

— Criss Jami

#bias #compassion #comprehension #discernment #fear

Esteem him! Like him! Cold-hearted Elinor! Oh! worse than cold-hearted! Ashamed of being otherwise. Use those words again, and I will leave the room this moment. ↗

— Jane Austen

#literature #love #marianne-dashwood #quote #sense-sensibility

The idea that their paths might have easily not crossed leaves her breathless, like a near-miss accident on a highway, and she can't help marveling at the sheer randomness of it all. Like any survivor of chance, she feels a quick rush of thankfulness, part adrenaline and part hope. ↗

— Jennifer E. Smith

#hope #yalit #love

What's agitating about solitude is the inner voice telling you that you should be mated to somebody, that solitude is a mistake. The inner voice doesn't care about who you find. It just keeps pestering you, tormenting you--if you happen to be me--with homecoming queens first, then girls next door, and finally anybody who might be pleased to see you now and then at the dinner table and in bed on occasion. You look up from reading the newspaper and realize that no one loves you, and no one burns for you. ↗

— Charles Baxter

#relationships #settling #solitude #love

By loving them for more than their abilities we show our children that they are much more than the sum of their accomplishments. ↗

— Eileen Kennedy-Moore

#accomplishment #achievement #child #children #children-and-parents

She wanted him to tell her that when you love someone so hard and so fierce, it was all right to do things that you knew were wrong. ↗

— Jodi Picoult

#obsession #love