#ness

I decided to find you, throw myself at your feet, and beg you to have mercy on me. Honestly, I’ll accept whatever you choose, Kelsey. Just don’t ask me to live apart from you again. Because...I can’t. ↗

— Colleen Houck

#illness

Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. ↗

— William Shakespeare

#night

I think that's the real loss of innocence: the first time you glimpse the boundaries that will limit your potential. ↗

— Steve Toltz

#self-discovery #innocence

The belief that unhappiness is selfless and happiness is selfish is misguided. It's more selfless to act happy. It takes energy, generosity, and discipline to be unfailingly lighthearted, yet everyone takes the happy person for granted. No one is careful of his feelings or tries to keep his spirits high. He seems self-sufficient; he becomes a cushion for others. And because happiness seems unforced, that person usually gets no credit. ↗

— Gretchen Rubin

#giving #happiness #selfishness #selflessness #acting

When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better. ↗

— Mae West

#sexuality #virtue #virtue

Good and great are seldom in the same man. ↗

— Winston Churchill

#virtue #virtue

Being good is easy, what is difficult is being just. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#goodness #justice #justice

...But the heart is not a computer that can be upgraded so quickly and easily with the latest version of love. Love cannot be sealed hermetically inside a tight box like any other on the store shelf; even though the word itself is in public domain, its quality is not. Love cannot promise a full customer satisfaction garanteed or a whole lifetime of dreams shared refunded, with no questions asked. Love cannot be agreed to in terms and conditions as quickly as the "Next" button being clicked. These unspoken terms and conditions grow and develop over time until it gets very messy, and no one remembers how such a mess of accusation and anger was able to overshadow their pure ecstasy of love, the spark between two people turning on a new operation system of togetherness for the first time. Love is always beta; never a golden master. If love were a computer, constant bug reports and subsequent fixes are the name of the game, and there are many unexplained breakdowns. The heart is too stubborn for explanations and too impatient for forgiveness, and there is usually no one at the tech support line. Forgive me stan, if I've crashed so often. It's just to hard to boot up to a whole new future without you. I am an empty monitor in search of a "hello. ↗

— Raymond Luczak

#longing #love #anger

She'd said that revenge was not sweet, that it was bloody. She was wrong. It *was* sweet. For one fleeting, glorious moment you felt incredible satisfaction. Then it was gone, empty, and you had to go on living. The power high that filled me with her light had faded, and all I tasted now were bitter ashes. ↗

— Sunny

#revenge #satisfaction

Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand – but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied. ↗

— Zadie Smith

#satisfaction #truth #unsatisfaction #veils #writing