Dear John

by Nicholas Sparks

You fight for your friend, to keep him alive, and he fights for you, and everything about the army is built on this simple premise.

I pointed to my left arm, which had an eagle and banner. “Okay, this is the infantry insignia, and this”—I pointed to the words and letters—“is how we’re identified: company, battalion, regiment.

“That’s what you meant when you said the army was something you needed at the time?” “It’s been good for me.”

Passion is passion. It’s the excitement between the tedious spaces, and it doesn’t matter where it’s directed.”

the saddest people I’ve ever met in life are the ones who don’t care deeply about anything at all. Passion and satisfaction go hand in hand, and without them, any happiness is only temporary, because there’s nothing to make it last.

“I’m a sucker for honest guys with crew cuts.

“My dad always said that when you’re struggling with something, look at all the people around you and realize that every single person you see is struggling with something, and to them, it’s just as hard as what you’re going through.”

She had the rare ability to be exactly what people needed when she was with them and yet still remain true to herself.

New and yet comfortable, as if we’d known each other forever.

And when her lips met mine, I knew that I could live to be a hundred and visit every country in the world, but nothing would ever compare to that single moment when I first kissed the girl of my dreams and knew that my love would last forever.

It’s strange how knowledge changes perception.

“Yeah, that, of course. But I also learned that it’s possible to go on, no matter how impossible it seems, and that in time, the grief… lessens. It may not ever go away completely, but after a while it’s not overwhelming.

love meant that you care for another person’s happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be.