Helena Jackson > Helena's Quotes

“Be a little kinder than you have to.”
― E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.”
― Dr. Seuss, The Lorax

“April 6—Today, I learned, the comma, this is, a, comma (,) a period, with, a tail, Miss Kinnian, says its, importent, because, it makes writing, better, she said, somebody, could lose, a lot, of money, if a comma, isnt in, the right, place, I got, some money, that I, saved from, my job, and what, the foundation, pays me, but not, much and, I dont see how, a comma, keeps, you from, losing it,
But, she says, everybody, uses commas, so Ill, use them, too,,,,

April 7—I used the comma wrong. Its punctuation…Miss Kinnian says a period is punctuation too, and there are lots of other marks to learn.
She said; You, got. to-mix?them!up: She showd? me” how, to mix! them; up, and now! I can. mix (up all? kinds of punctuation— in, my. writing! There” are lots, of rules; to learn? but. Im’ get’ting them in my head:
One thing? I, like: about, Dear Miss Kinnian: (thats, the way? it goes; in a business letter (if I ever go! into business?) is that, she: always; gives me’ a reason” when—I ask. She”s a gen’ius! I wish? I could be smart-like-her;
Punctuation, is? fun!”
― Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon

“A person's a person, no matter how small.”
― Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who!

“What'll we do with ourselves this afternoon?” cried Daisy, “and the day after that, and the next thirty years?”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby

“Where are the men?” the little prince at last took up the conversation
again. “It is a little lonely in the desert. . . ”
“It is also lonely among men,” the snake said.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

“Can I hold your hand?" he asked.
I put mine in his.
"The universe is seeming really huge right now," he told me. "I need something to hold on to."
"I'm here.”
― E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

“Do not accept an evil you can change.”
― E. Lockhart, We Were Liars

“I'd like to be sitting here five years from now, Marshal, and know you're still in the world."
Teddy looked down at the hand on his knee. Looked up at Cawley.
"I would too," he said softly.”
― Dennis Lehane, Shutter Island

“Perhaps during former years he had suffered from the late-discovered unworthiness of one beloved, and so was disposed to set a greater value on tried worth.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein

“I was required to exchange chimeras of boundless grandeur for realities of little worth.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“Yet with how many things are we upon the brink of becoming acquainted, if cowardice or carelessness did not restrain our inquires.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“But my enthusiasm was checked by my anxiety, and I appeared rather like one doomed by slavery to toil in the mines, or any other unwholesome trade than an artist occupied by his favorite employment.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“But is it not a duty to the survivors, that we should refrain from augmenting their unhappiness by an appearance of immoderate grief?”
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein

“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“As yet I looked upon crime as a distant evil; benevolence and generosity were ever present before me, inciting within me a desire to become an actor in the busy scene where so many admirable qualities were called forth and displayed.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein

“I postponed this attempt for some months longer; for the importance attached to its success inspired me with a dread lest I shall fail.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein

“From you only could I hope for succour, although towards you I felt no sentiment but that of hatred. Unfeeling, heartless creator! You had endowed me with perceptions and passions and then cast me abroad an object for the scorn and horror of mankind.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“All joy was but a mockery, which insulted my desolate state, and made me feel more painfully that I was not made for the enjoyment of pleasure.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein

“This passion is detrimental to me; for you do not reflect that you are the cause of its excess.”
― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein

“But I am a blasted tree; the bolt has entered my soul; and I felt then that I should survive to exhibit, what I shall soon cease to be - a miserable spectacle of wrecked humanity, pitiable to others, and intolerable to myself.”
― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“Every human behavior can be explained by what precedes it, but that does not excuse it,”
― Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

“If you tell someone ten times that you don’t want to talk to him, you are talking to them—nine more times than you wanted to.”
― Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

“I’ve successfully lobbied and testified for stalking laws in several states, but I would trade them all for a high school class that would teach young men how to hear “no,” and teach young women that it’s all right to explicitly reject.”
― Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

“The solution to violence in America is the acceptance of reality”
― Gavin De Becker, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

“The unsolicited promise is one of the most reliable signals because it is nearly always of questionable motive.”
― Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

“I imagine this conversation after a stranger is told No by a woman he has approached: MAN: What a bitch. What’s your problem, lady? I was just trying to offer a little help to a pretty woman. What are you so paranoid about? WOMAN: You’re right. I shouldn’t be wary. I’m overreacting about nothing. I mean, just because a man makes an unsolicited and persistent approach in an underground parking lot in a society where crimes against women have risen four times faster than the general crime rate, and three out of four women will suffer a violent crime; and just because I’ve personally heard horror stories from every female friend I’ve ever had; and just because I have to consider where I park, where I walk, whom I talk to, and whom I date in the context of whether someone will kill me or rape me or scare me half to death; and just because several times a week someone makes an inappropriate remark, stares at me, harasses me, follows me, or drives alongside my car pacing me; and just because I have to deal with the apartment manager who gives me the creeps for reasons I haven’t figured out, yet I can tell by the way he looks at me that given an opportunity he’d do something that would get us both on the evening news; and just because these are life-and-death issues most men know nothing about so that I’m made to feel foolish for being cautious even though I live at the center of a swirl of possible hazards DOESN’T MEAN A WOMAN SHOULD BE WARY OF A STRANGER WHO IGNORES THE WORD ‘NO’.”
― Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

“I am capable of what every other human is capable of. This is one of the great lessons of war and life.”
― Gavin de Becker, The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

“What win I, if I gain the thing I seek?
A dream, a breath, a froth of fleeting joy.
Who buys a minute's mirth to wail a week?
Or sells eternity to get a toy?
For one sweet grape who will the vine destroy?
Or what fond beggar, but to touch the crown,
Would with the sceptre straight be strucken down?”
― William Shakespeare, The Rape of Lucrece

“Eventually something you love is going to be taken away. And then you will fall to the floor crying. And then, however much later, it is finally happening to you: you’re falling to the floor crying thinking, “I am falling to the floor crying,” but there’s an element of the ridiculous to it — you knew it would happen and, even worse, while you’re on the floor crying you look at the place where the wall meets the floor and you realize you didn’t paint it very well.”
― Richard Siken