#ty

Just tell yourself a story that'll satisfy you and pretend he told it. ↗

— Catherynne M. Valente

#deathless #hatred #honesty #ignorance #lies-lying-liars

I went back to the clanging city, I went back where my old loves stayed, But my heart was full of my new love's glory, My eyes were laughing and unafraid. I met one who had loved me madly And told his love for all to hear -- But we talked of a thousand things together, The past was buried too deep to fear. I met the other, whose love was given With never a kiss and scarcely a word - Oh, it was then the terror took me Of words unuttered that breathed and stirred. Oh, love that lives its life with laughter Or love that lives its life with tears Can die - but love that is never spoken Goes like a ghost through the winding years… I went back to the clanging city, I went back where my old loves stayed, My heart was full of my new love's glory, - But my eyes were suddenly afraid. ↗

— Sara Teasdale

#city #love #the-ghost #life

No matter what those sex-ed teachers say about how great condoms are, there's not a condom in the world to protect you from heartbreak. ↗

— Natasha Friend

#sexuality #love

The fragility of love is what is most at stake here—humanity's most crucial three-word avowal is often uttered only to find itself suddenly embarrassing or orphaned or isolated or ill-timed—but strangely enough it can work better as a literal or reassuring statement than a transcendent or numinous or ecstatic one. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#humanity #isolation #love #love

I was determined that in fiction anyway two men should fall in love and remain in it for the ever and ever that fiction allows. ↗

— E.M. Forster

#gay-men #homosexuality #lgbt-literature #love #maurice-novel

To reach back and help, and expect neither reward nor even thanks. To reach back and help, because that is what spiritual beings do. ↗

— Brian L. Weiss

#love

For the church, the many abuses of human life, liberty, and dignity are a heartfelt suffering. The church, entrusted with the earth’s glory, believes that in each person is the Creator’s image and that everyone who tramples it offends God. As holy defender of God’s rights and of his images, the church must cry out. It takes as spittle in its face, as lashes on its back, as the cross in its passion, all that human beings suffer, even though they be unbelievers. They suffer as God’s images. There is no dichotomy between man and God’s image. Whoever tortures a human being, whoever abuses a human being, whoever outrages a human being abuses God’s image, and the church takes as its own that cross, that martyrdom. ↗

— Oscar A. Romero

#christian-living #church #cross #god #martyrdom

When someone who's starved of love is shown something that looks like sincere affection, is it any wonder that she jumps at it and clings to it? ↗

— Sayo Masuda

#geisha #heart-broken #japan #love #masuda

A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is a humble broken-hearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires. Their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable and full of glory, is a humble broken-hearted joy, and leaves the Christian more poor in spirit, and more like a little child, and more disposed to a universal lowliness of behaviour. ↗

— Jonathan Edwards

#humility #joy #love #poor-in-spirit #love

If he touches me, I will succumb. I know the power he wields over me and my traitorous body. I know. ↗

— E.L. James

#ana-steele #anastasia-grey #anastasia-steele #conflict #fifty-shades-freed