Kindle's quotes

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" If you lose your purpose ... it's like you're broken. "
— Brian Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret)

tags: fiction
17 people liked it

"I like to imagine that the world is one big machine. You know, machines never have any extra parts. They have the exact number and types of parts they need. So I figure if the entire world is a big machine, I have to be here for some reason, too. (p378)"
— Brian Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret)

tags: provoking, thought
10 people liked it

"Even if all the clocks in the station break down, thought Hugo, time won't stop. Not even if you really want it to.

Like now."
— Brian Selznick (The Invention of Hugo Cabret)

5 people liked it

"For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die."
— Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)

tags: books, reading
187 people liked it

"You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."
— Anne Lamott

160 people liked it

"Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a better past."
— Anne Lamott

82 people liked it

"I do not understand the mystery of grace -- only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us."
— Anne Lamott

tags: grace, inspirational
77 people liked it

"Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft. I think perfectionism is based on the obsessive belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won't have to die. The truth is that you will die anyway and that a lot of people who aren't even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they're doing it."
— Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)

tags: life, perfectionism, writing
69 people liked it

"Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They depen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul. When writers make us shake our heads with the exactness of their prose and their truths, and even make us laugh about ourselves or life, our buoyancy is restored. We are given a shot at dancing with, or at least clapping along with, the absurdity of life, instead of being squashed by it over and over again. It's like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm, but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship."
— Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)

tags: books, reading, writing
67 people liked it

"I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish."
— Anne Lamott

61 people liked it

"Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining."
— Anne Lamott

52 people liked it

"You can either practice being right or practice being kind."
— Anne Lamott

62 people liked it

"You will lose someone you can’t live without,and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp."
— Anne Lamott

tags: grief, loss, recovery
70 people liked it

"Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.

From her graduation commencement address to Berkeley."
— Anne Lamott

tags: inspirational
50 people liked it

"It's good to do uncomfortable things. It's weight training for life."
— Anne Lamott (Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith)

tags: life
43 people liked it

"You are lucky to be one of those people who wishes to build sand castles with words, who is willing to create a place where your imagination can wander. We build this place with the sand of memories; these castles are our memories and inventiveness made tangible. So part of us believes that when the tide starts coming in, we won't really have lost anything, because actually only a symbol of it was there in the sand. Another part of us thinks we'll figure out a way to divert the ocean. This is what separates artists from ordinary people: the belief, deep in our hearts, that if we build our castles well enough, somehow the ocean won't wash them away. I think this is a wonderful kind of person to be."
— Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life)

tags: imagination, writer, writers, writing
45 people liked it

"Laughter is carbonated holiness."
— Anne Lamott

33 people liked it

"Not forgiving is like drinking cat poison and then waiting for the rat to die."
— Anne Lamott

30 people liked it

"A good marriage is where both people feel like they're getting the better end of the deal."
— Anne Lamott (Joe Jones: A Novel)

tags: marriage
18 people liked it

"No" is a complete sentence."
— Anne Lamott

21 people liked it

"My mind is a neighborhood I try not to go into alone."
— Anne Lamott

16 people liked it

"Joy is the best makeup."
— Anne Lamott (Grace [Eventually]: Thoughts on Faith)

13 people liked it

""Let's never stop asking questions. Questions give us a harbor to remember where we once lived mentally. They remind us of the possibilities that can be born out of thoughts and musings, and they link together pattern that define our lives." "
— Luci Swindoll (I Married Adventure)

2 people liked it

"Lord, to the degree I don't want to do this, bless me."
— Luci Swindoll

tags: inspirational
5 people liked it

"There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone you love calling your name."
— Kate DiCamillo (The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread)

124 people liked it

"Stories are light. Light is precious in a world so dark. Begin at the beginning. Tell Gregory a story. Make some light."
— Kate DiCamillo (The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread)

tags: dark, darkness, light, stories, story
47 people liked it

"Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform."
— Kate DiCamillo (Despereaux/the Tale Of Despereaux)

tags: fate
43 people liked it

"If you have no intention of loving or being loved, the whole journey is pointless."
— Kate DiCamillo

27 people liked it

"Love, as we have already discussed, is a powerful, wonderful, ridiculous thing, capable of moving mountains. And spools of thread."
— Kate DiCamillo (Despereaux/the Tale Of Despereaux)

23 people liked it

"The world is dark, and light is precious.
Come closer, dear reader.
You must trust me.
I am telling you a story."
— Kate DiCamillo (The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread)

tags: books
13 people liked it

"My favorite six letter word is
always
because it promises
so much.

My favorite five letter word is
never
because it insists on contradicting
the promise.

My favorite four letter word is
once
because it says it
happened then.

My favorite three letter word is
yes
because I’m just now learning
to say it
to my heart.

My favorite two letter word is
if
because it makes
all things possible
like this:

If not always
If not never
Then once.

Yes."
— Kate DiCamillo

tags: dicamillo, journal, website
12 people liked it

"You can't always judge people by the things they done. You got to judge them by what they are doing now."
— Kate DiCamillo (Because of Winn-Dixie)

tags: inspirational
12 people liked it

""Once there was a princess who was very beautiful. She shone bright as the stars on a moonless night. But what difference did it make that she was beautiful? None. No difference."
"Why did it make no difference?" asked Abilene.
"Because," said Pellegrina, "She was a princess who loved no one and cared nothing for love, even though there were many who loved her.""
— Kate DiCamillo (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane)

11 people liked it

"This is the danger of loving: No matter how powerful you are, no matter how many kingdoms you rule, you cannot stop those you love from dying."
— Kate DiCamillo (The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup and a Spool of Thread)

8 people liked it

"He was weeping. Although 'weeping' really is to small a word for the activity the kind had undertaken. Tears were cascading from his eyes. A small puddle had formed at his feet. I am not exaggerating. The king, it seemed, was intent on crying himself a river."
— Kate DiCamillo

7 people liked it

"That is surely the truth, at least for now. But perhaps you have not noticed: the truth is forever changing.”"
— Kate DiCamillo (The Magician's Elephant)

8 people liked it

"Open your heart. Someone will come. Someone will come for you. But first you must open your heart. (Old Doll)
"
— Kate DiCamillo (The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane)

tags: edward
6 people liked it

"“READING SHOULD NOT BE PRESENTED TO CHILDREN AS A CHORE OR A DUTY. IT SHOULD BE OFFERED TO THEM AS A PRECIOUS GIFT." "
— Kate DiCamillo

5 people liked it

"We appreciate the complicated and wonderful gifts you give us in each other. And we appreciate the task you put down before us, of loving each other the best we can, even as you love us."
— Kate DiCamillo (Because of Winn-Dixie)

tags: inspirational
4 people liked it

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind."
— Dr. Seuss

tags: be-yourself, confidence, individuality, those-who-matter
17,656 people liked it

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
— Dr. Seuss

tags: cry, crying, experience, happiness, joy, life, optimism, sadness, smile, smiling
14,272 people liked it

"A room without books is like a body without a soul."
— Marcus Tullius Cicero

tags: books, soul
10,838 people liked it

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."
— Maya Angelou

tags: life
10,891 people liked it

"Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent."
— Eleanor Roosevelt

tags: confidence, inspirational, wisdom
10,145 people liked it

"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams."
— Dr. Seuss

tags: dreams, love, reality, sleep
10,060 people liked it

"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

tags: best, life, love, mistakes, out-of-control, truth, worst
10,257 people liked it

"If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything."
— Mark Twain

tags: lies, lying, memory, truth
9,171 people liked it

"Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
— Albert Einstein

tags: humor, insanity, life
9,256 people liked it

"So many books, so little time."
— Frank Zappa

tags: books, humor
9,130 people liked it

"Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend."
— Albert Camus

tags: friends, friendship
9,162 people liked it

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