Alyssa > Alyssa's Quotes

“Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.”
― Robin Hobb, Fool's Fate

“In that last dance of chances

I shall partner you no more.

I shall watch another turn you

As you move across the floor.


In that last dance of chances

When I bid your life goodbye

I will hope she treats you kindly.

I will hope you learn to fly.


In that last dance of chances

When I know you'll not be mine

I will let you go with longing

And the hope that you'll be fine.


In that last dance of chances

We shall know each other's minds.

We shall part with our regrets

When the tie no longer binds.”
― Robin Hobb, Fool's Fate

“Every small, unselfish action nudges the world into a better path. An accumulation of small acts can change the world.”
― Robin Hobb, Fool's Fate

“Humankind is made for uncertainly, struggle, choice and change.”
― Robert Jordan, The Shadow Rising

“We all have our moments of weakness, just as well that we are capable of weeping, tears are often our salvation, there are times when we would die if we did not weep…”
― José Saramago, Blindness

“I've found that there is always some beauty left -- in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.”
― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl

“I firmly believe that nature can bring comfort to all who suffer.”
― Anne Frank

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more dangerous to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild

“You won’t understand what I mean now, but someday you will: the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are—not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving—and then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and to try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad—or good—it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well.”
― Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life

“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! - I have as much soul as you, - and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you!”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“How nice -- to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“And so it goes...”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say.”
― Daphne duMaurier, Rebecca

“Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.”
― Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca

“I suppose sooner or later in the life of everyone comes a moment of trial. We all of us have our particular devil who rides us and torments us, and we must give battle in the end.”
― Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca

“I wondered how many people there were in the world who suffered, and continued to suffer, because they could not break out from their own web of shyness and reserve, and in their blindness and folly built up a great distorted wall in front of them that hid the truth.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

“I wondered why it was that places are so much lovelier when one is
alone.”
― Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca

“Don't you long for something different to happen, something so exciting and new it carries you along with it like a great tide, something that lets your life blaze and burn so the whole world can see it?”
― Juliet Marillier, Son of the Shadows

“This is a long goodbye, yet not time enough. I have no aptitude for this. I cannot learn this. I would hold on, and hold on, until my hands clutch at emptiness.”
― Juliet Marillier, Son of the Shadows

“Your actions are your own. Your choices are your own. Each of us carries a burden of guilt for decisions made or not made. You can let that rule your whole life or you can put it behind you and move on. Only a madman lets jealousy determine the course of his existence. Only a weak man blames others for his own errors.”
― Juliet Marillier, Son of the Shadows

“To say that is to say we have no choice at all in what we do, how we live. I don't believe that, Uncle. Perhaps we do have a short span in this world [...]; perhaps our scope is somewhat limited. But within those limits we do have the power to change things, the power to make choices and to go where we must.”
― Juliet Marillier, Son of the Shadows

“Cause nobody's the slightest idea who we are, or who we were, not even we ourselves
- except, that is, in the glimmer of a moment of fair business between strangers, or the nod of knowing and agreement between friends.
Other than these, we go out anonymous into the insect air and all we are is the dust of colour, brief engineerings of wings towards a glint of light on a blade of grass or a leaf in a summer dark.”
― Ali Smith, How to be Both

“It was all : it was nothing : it was more than enough.”
― Ali Smith, How to be Both

“All we are is eyes looking for the unbroken or the edges where the broken bits might fit each other.”
― Ali Smith, How to be Both

“When you've nothing, at least you've all of it.”
― Ali Smith, How to be Both

“How are you feeling? Mrs Rock said.
I'm okay, George said. I think it's because I don't think I am.
You're okay because you don't think you're okay? Mrs Rock said.
Feeling, George said. I think I'm okay because I don't think I'm feeling.”
― Ali Smith, How to be Both

“Garlic is divine. Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screwtop jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic.”
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly

“I'm not going anywhere. I hope. It's been an adventure. We took some casualties over the years. Things got broken. Things got lost.
But I wouldn't have missed it for the world.”
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly