Em > Em's Quotes

“I don't think I'm going to like it at all. I think it's going to hurt. But after the hurt I think maybe something good and strong and beautiful will come out of it.”
― Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird

“Let's enjoy the beautiful things we can see, my dear, and not think about those we cannot.”
― Johanna Spyri, Heidi

“That which we do for ourselves dies with us … that which we do for others lives forever.”
― Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

“When you’re an artist, nobody ever tells you or hits you with the magic wand of legitimacy. You have to hit your own head with your own handmade wand. And you feel stupid doing it. There’s no “correct path” to becoming a real artist. You might think you’ll gain legitimacy by going to art school, getting published, getting signed to a record label. But it’s all bullshit, and it’s all in your head. You’re an artist when you say you are. And you’re a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected.”
― Amanda Palmer, The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help

“Sometimes I read the same books over and over and over. What's great about books is that the stuff inside doesn't change. People say you can't judge a book by its cover but that's not true because it says right on the cover what's inside. And no matter how many times you read that book the words and pictures don't change. You can open and close books a million times and they stay the same. They look the same. They say the same words. The charts and pictures are the same colors.

Books are not like people. Books are safe.”
― Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird

“Those who ask without fear learn to say two things, with or without words, to those they are facing: I deserve to ask and You are welcome to say no. Because the ask that is conditional cannot be a gift.”
― Amanda Palmer, The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help

“Empathy isn't as hard as it sounds because people have a lot of the same feelings. And it helps to understand other people because then you can actually care about them sometimes. And help them. And have a friend.”
― Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird

“Just... isn't giving up allowed sometimes? Isn't it okay to say, ‘This really hurts, so I’m going to stop trying’?”
“It sets a dangerous precedent.”
“For avoiding pain?”
“For avoiding life.”
― Rainbow Rowell, Fangirl

“Even though I didn't think I'd like empathy it kind of creeps up on you and makes you feel all warm and glowy inside. I don't think I want to go back to life without empathy.”
― Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird

“Blurring is good for the things you don’t want to see but it doesn’t work so well for the stuff you actually have to Deal With.”
― Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird

“You know how you finish a bag of chips and you hate yourself? You know you’ve done nothing good for yourself. That’s the same feeling, and you know it is, after some digital binge. You feel wasted and hollow and diminished.”
― Dave Eggers, The Circle

“You don't have to stay anywhere forever.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
― Anne Frank

“I’m not sure what I’ll do, but— well, I want to go places and see people. I want my mind to grow. I want to live where things happen on a big scale.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Ice Palace and Other Stories

“É como se corresse sobre o mar para as estrelas, na mais maravilhosa viagem do mundo. Uma viagem como o Professor nunca leu nem inventou. Seu coração bate tanto, tanto, que ele o aperta com a mão.”
― Jorge Amado, Capitães da areia

“No, but I feel as if a big stone is pressing me here.”
― Johanna Spyri, Heidi

“Foresight is a virtue and averts many a misfortune.”
― Johanna Spyri, Heidi

“I feel like Snow White because now I have a bunch of little dwarf friends who love me. I may not know how Scout's overalls feel but I think I know how Snow White's Shoes feel because now I know why Snow White was happy.”
― Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird

“A movie is better than real life because in the movies only the bad guys die. Or you can pick the good movies where the bad guys die and only those. If you get tricked and a good person dies in the movie then you can rewrite it in your head so the good person lives and the part about death is superfluous.”
― Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird

“Darkness feeds on apathy.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

“Chaos was the natural law of the universe. Indifference was the engine of entropy. Man's apathy was the fertile ground in which the dark spirits tended their seeds.”
― Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol

“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.

It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“Stuff your eyes with wonder, he said, live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“The magic is only in what books say, how they stitched the patches of the universe together into one garment for us.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“He was neither rich nor great, young nor handsome, - in no respect what is called fascinating, imposing or brilliant; and yet he was as attractive as a genial fire, and people seemed to gather about him as naturally as about a warm hearth.”
― Louisa May Alcott

“It made her think that it was curious how much nicer a person looked when he smiled. She had not thought of it before.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, Secret Garden

“A body 'as to move gentle an' speak low when wild things is about.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

“I wish people would follow the Facial Expressions Chart like they’re supposed to.”
― Kathryn Erskine, Mockingbird

“Dickon says anything will understand if you're friends with it for sure, but you have to be friends for sure.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden