#r

…he wanted to sleep inside her lungs and breathe her blood and be smothered. He wanted her to be a virgin and not a virgin all at once. He wanted to know her. Intimate secrets: Why poetry? Why so sad? Why that grayness in her eyes? Why so alone? Not lonely, just alone - riding her bike across campus or sitting off by herself in the cafeteria - even dancing, she danced alone - and it was the aloneness that filled him with love. He remembered telling her that one evening. How she nodded and looked away. And how, later, when he kissed her, she received the kiss without returning it, her eyes wide open, not afraid, not a virgin’s eyes, just flat and uninvolved. ↗

— Tim O'Brien

#the-things-they-carried #tim-o-brien #virgin #love

Passivity is corrosive to the soul; it feeds on feelings of integrity and pride, and it can be as tempting as a drug. ↗

— Caroline Knapp

#love

Happiness is attained, not through self-interest, but through unconditional fidelity in endless love of eternal light. ↗

— Aaron Cohen

#eternal #happiness #light #love #quote

The best part of falling in love is the mystery and excitement of not knowing. The worst part of falling in love is the mystery and agony of not knowing. ↗

— Gayle Hayes

#love

Is it possible not to ever know your type - not to even know you have a type - until quite suddenly you do? ↗

— Jennifer E. Smith

#love

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." 1 John 4:16 ↗

— Anonymous

#god #love #love

Placing one last kiss over her heart, he lifted his head to find her staring at him with The Look—the one that told a guy when a woman was leaving Let’s Screw For Fun City and headed straight for Let’s Pick Out China Town—written all over her pretty face. ↗

— Gina L. Maxwell

#gina-l-maxwell #seducing-cinderella #love

If you want to know if a gentleman loves you,” her mother said, “there is only one true way to be sure.” “It’s in his kiss,” her mother whispered. “It’s all there, in his kiss. ↗

— Julia Quinn

#gareth-st-clair #hyacinth-bridgerton #it-s-in-his-kiss #julia-quinn #love

Her father’s shadow looked sadly down at her. “You can never forget what you do in a war, September my love. No one can. You won’t forget your war either. ↗

— Catherynne M. Valente

#war #love

Can I be blamed for wanting a real body, to put my arms around? Without it I too am disembodied. I can listen to my own heartbeat against the bedsprings...but there’s something dead about it, something deserted. ↗

— Margaret Atwood

#arms #body #dead #desire #fantasy