A > A's Quotes

“Getting lost is just another way of saying 'going exploring.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“Beauty—real everlasting beauty—lives not on our faces, but in our attitude and our actions. It lives in what we do for ourselves and for others.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“He knew me in all the ways that truly mattered: the shape of my fears, the contours of my dreams.”
― Justina Chen Headley

“Flawed, we're truly interesting, truly memorable, and yes, truly beautiful.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“There must be a few times in life when you stand at a precipice of a decision. When you know there will forever be a Before and an After...I knew there would be no turning back if I designated this moment as my own Prime Meridian from which everything else would be measured.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“This is beautiful," I said, ignoring the shop window to trace the gleaming stone walls fronting another boutique.
"You know what's funny?" Jacob asked. He didn't wait for my answer. "You can see beauty in everything, except for yourself."

***

I swallowed hard. Erik thought my body was beautiful, Karin that it was enviable. At random times, people had noted that my hands were beautiful, or my hair. The Twisted Sisters had called my art beautiful. Mom had the best intentions and always told me before and after my laser surgeries that I would be beautiful. But no one had ever said that I was beautiful, all my parts taken together, not just the bits and pieces.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“That's when it struck me: how gorgeous we all were, even with cellulite (saw a lot of that) and stretch marks, scars and tattoos. Let me just say this, not single body was perfect, not even the fittest of women there.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“I didn't know that the world could be so mind-blowingly beautiful.”
― Justina Chen Headley

“Physical beauty wasn't the same as True Beauty, any more than pretty ugly meant truly ugly or Magnetic North meant True North.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“[True beauty] seeps into you. It doesn't make you forget yourself, but totally the opposite. It connects you with everything and fills you with awe that you share the same space with something that glorious. Like a sunrise or a clear blue day or the most extraordinary piece of glass. And then suddenly...you have this epiphany that there's more to the world than just you and what you want or even who you are.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“Let the glossy spreads have their heart-stopping, head-turning kind of beauty. Give me the heart-filling beauty instead. Jolie laide, that's what I would choose. Flawed, we're truly interesting, truly memorable, and yes, truly beautiful.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“If Jacob was right and clothes were costumes and makeup a mask, then our attitudes and habits must be our shields.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“You know, there are easier ways to meet a guy than to run him over.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“What would it be like to look in the mirror and actually accept what you see? Not loathe the reflection, or despise it, or be resigned to it? But to like it?”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“But the truly brilliant geocachers?"
"Yeah?" he says. "What about us?"
"They know it by its real name. Terra Firma."
"Terra Firma," he repeats. At last, he slips his backpack off his shoulder. I know what he's looking for.
I take a breath. "You don't need your GPS for this cache."
His eyes don't move off mine; he's watching me so carefully. "You don't, huh?"
"Nope," I say.
Some things are meant to be kept - what you learn from experiences good or bad, smiles from an orphaned girl, a boy who is your compass pointing to your True North. So I look at Jacob full in the face with nothing obscuring him. Or me. And then I step closer to him. And closer. And closer yet.
"Here I am," I tell him. "Here I am.”
― Justina Chen Headley, North of Beautiful

“I believe there is something on this earth that you desire more than anything, and it isn't me.”
― Kenneth Oppel, Such Wicked Intent

“If you were closer, I'd slap you," she said.

"Let me help," I replied, and stepped closer.

She promptly slapped me, which surprised me only a little.

We glared at each other in the near dark, and then she looked away.

"I'm sorry I slapped you," she said.

"That's all right. I quite enjoyed it.”
― Kenneth Oppel, Such Wicked Intent

“It was as though, in one moment, he had become a stranger. And I a stranger to myself.”
― Kenneth Oppel, This Dark Endeavor

“You're like something drawn with the sun's fire, and I can take only little glimpses of you.”
― Kenneth Oppel, Such Wicked Intent

“Beyond the lake, over the mountains, the clouds were illuminated from within by a brilliant stutter of lightning, and in that split second Elizabeth and I were etched against the sky.”
― Kenneth Oppel, This Dark Endeavor

“Love is pretty much a decision anyway. Just like happiness. You can decide to either love someone or not, be happy or not. The rest is just commitment to the idea.”
― Caprice Crane, Stupid and Contagious

“Yesterday I had a woman ask me what kind of salad dressings we have. I told her we have sesame soy dressing, spicy lime vinaigrette, and blue cheese. She made a face and asked, 'Is that all?' 'Yes,' I told her, 'those are all of our dressings.' 'Don't you have any other dressings?' he says. I mean, what the hell? What does she think? That I'm holding out? I was tempted to say, "No, we actually have an entirely different assortment of dressings that I don't tell people about the first time they ask, because they don't deserve these great secret dressings. But now that you have proven your worth, I will show you to the VIP room, where the array of salad dressings will dazzle and delight you.”
― Caprice Crane, Stupid and Contagious

“I tend to think the good outweighs the bad. Then again, I try to be a glass-half-full person. Although I stand by my theory that if you measure your happiness by the amount of liquid in your glass, you are either a cliche or an alcoholic.”
― Caprice Crane

“Someone once said, People come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. They forgot one other option: Some people come only to give us their contact information, let us know that we really need to get together sometime, and why don’t we give them a call?”
― Caprice Crane, Stupid and Contagious

“The sad truth is the truth is sad.”
― Lemony Snicket, The Hostile Hospital

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid

“Wicked people never have time for reading. It's one of the reasons for their wickedness.”
― Lemony Snicket

“Reading is one form of escape. Running for your life is another.”
― Lemony Snicket

“It is always cruel to laugh at people, of course, although sometimes if they are wearing an ugly hat it is hard to control yourself.”
― Lemony Snicket

“At times the world may seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe that there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough. and what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events may in fact be the first steps of a journey.”
― Lemony Snicket