"Grownups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiring for children to always be explaining things to them."
— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (El principito & Piloto de guerra/ The Little Prince & War Pilot)

"Even more, I had never meant to love him. One thing I truly knew - knew it in the pit of my stomach, in the center of my bones, knew it from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet, knew it deep in my empty chest - was how love gave someone the power to break you.
I'd been broken beyond repair."
— Stephenie Meyer (New Moon)

"Bea says that the art of reading is slowly dying, that it's an intimate ritual, that a book is a mirror that offers us only what we already carry inside us, that when we read, we do it with all our heart and mind, and great readers are becoming more scarce by the day."
— Carlos Ruiz Zafón (The Shadow of the Wind)

"I don't know about you, but I'm kind of fed up with realism. After all, there's enough reality already; why make more of it? Why not leave realism for the memoirs of drug addicts, the histories of salt, the biographies of porn stars? Why must we continue to read about the travails of divorced people or mildly depressed Canadians when we could be contemplating the shopping habits of zombies, or the difficulties that ensue when living and dead people marry each other? We should be demanding more stories about faery handbags and pyjamas inscribed with the diaries of strange women. We should not rest until someone writes about a television show that features the Free People's World-Tree Library, with its elaborate waterfalls and Forbidden Books and Pirate-Magicians. We should be pining for a house haunted by rabbits."
— Kelly Link

"For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Making money isn't hard in itself... What's hard is to earn it doing something worth devoting one's life to."
— Carlos Ruiz Zafón (The Shadow of the Wind)

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers."
— Charles W. Eliot

"Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes."
— Mahatma Gandhi

"So what you're saying is, I'm your brand of heroin?"
"You're exactly my brand of heroin."
— Stephenie Meyer (Twilight)

"A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it."
— Albert Einstein

"Eventually the Woodsman spoke. ‘We all have our routines,’ he said softly. ‘But they must have a purpose and provide an outcome that we can see and take some comfort from, or else they have no use at all. Without that, they are like the endless pacings of a caged animal. If they are not madness itself, then they are a prelude to it.’

The Woodsman stood and showed David his axe.

‘See here,’ he said, pointing with his finger at the blade. Every morning, I make certain that me axe is clean and keen. I look to my house and check that its windows and doors remain secure. I tend to my land, disposing of weeds and ensuring that the soil is watered. I walk through the forest, clearing those paths that need to be kept open. Where trees have been damaged, I do my best to repair what has been harmed. these are my routines and I enjoy doing them well.’

He laid a hand gently on David’s shoulder, and David saw understanding in his face. ‘Rules and routines are good, but they must give you satisfaction. Can you truly say you gain that from touching and counting?’

David shook his head. ‘No,’ he said, ‘but I get scared when I don’t do them. I’m afraid of what might happen.’

‘Then find routines that allow you to feel secure when they are done. You told me that you have a new brother: look to him each morning. Look to your father, and your stepmother. Tend to the flowers in the garden, or in the pots upon the window sill. Seek others who are weaker than you are, and try to give them comfort where you can. Let these be your routines, and the rules that govern your life."
— John Connolly (The Book of Lost Things)

"I believe in those whom I love and trust. All else is foolishness. This god is as empty as his church. His followers choose to attribute all of their good fortune to him, but when he ignores their pleas or leaves them to suffer, they say only that he ignores their pleas or leaves them to suffer, they say only that he is beyond their understanding and abandon themselves to his will. What kind of god is that?"
— John Connolly (The Book of Lost Things)

"Usually we walk around constantly believing ourselves. "I'm okay" we say. "I'm alright". But sometimes the truth arrives on you and you can't get it off. That's when you realize that sometimes it isn't even an answer--it's a question. Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced."
— Markus Zusak (The Book Thief)

"Love is the kind of thing that's already happening by the time you notice it, that's how it works, and no matter how old you get, that doesn't change. Except that you can break it up into two entirely distinct types -- love where there's an end in sight and love where there isn't."
— Banana Yoshimoto (Goodbye Tsugumi)

"Even when I try to stir myself up, I just get irritated because I can't make anything come out. And in the middle of the night I lie here thinking about all this. If I don't get back on track somehow, I'm dead, that's the sense I get. There isn't a single strong emotion inside me."
— Banana Yoshimoto

"We ran into lots of old friends. Friends from elementary school, junior high school, high school. Everyone had matured in their own way, and even as we stood face to face with them they seemed like people from dreams, sudden glimpses through the fences of our tangled memories. We smiled and waved, exchanged a few words, and then walked on in our separate directions."
— Banana Yoshimoto (Goodbye Tsugumi)

"Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere."
— Albert Einstein

"Why get even, when you can get odd?"
— Joe

"Do you understand how amazing it is to hear that from an adult? Do you know how amazing it is to hear that from anybody? It's one of the simplest sentences in the world, just four words, but they're the four hugest words in the world when they're put together.

You can do it."
— Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian)

"The world, even the smallest parts of it, is filled with things you don't know."
— Sherman Alexie

"I swim against the tide because I like to annoy. "
— Carlos Ruiz Zafón

"Time goes faster the more hollow it is. Lives with no meaning go straight past you, like trains that don’t stop at your station."
— Carlos Ruiz Zafón (The Shadow of the Wind)

"I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best."
— Marilyn Monroe

"It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err."
— Mahatma Gandhi

"Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures."
— Jessamyn West

"Do one thing everyday that scares you."
— Eleanor Roosevelt

"To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer."
— Mahatma Gandhi

"If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be."
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose."
— Lou Holtz

"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."
— Confucius

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
— Abraham Lincoln

"The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go."
— Dr. Seuss

"Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!"
— Dr. Seuss

"I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!"
— Dr. Seuss

"Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope."
— Dr. Seuss

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You."
— Dr. Seuss (Happy Birthday to You!)

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..."
— Dr. Seuss

"All alone! Whether you like it or not, alone is something you'll be quite a lot!"
— Dr. Seuss (Oh, the Places You'll Go! and The Lorax)

"Whenever I feel the need to exercise, I lie down until it goes away."
— Robert Maynard Hutchins

"Anyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car."
— Garrison Keillor

"If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals."
— J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."
— Mark Twain

"It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it."
— Lou Holtz

"Champions have the courage to keep turning the pages because they know a better chapter lies ahead."
— Paula White

"Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air."
— John Quincy Adams

"Nothing great will ever be achieved without great men, and men are great only if they are determined to be so."
— Charles de Gaulle

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect."
— Mark Twain