Charm Adele > Charm's Quotes

“Nothing in life is more exciting and rewarding than the sudden flash of insight that leaves you a changed person, not only changed, but for the better”
― Arthur Gordon

“The trouble with ‘if only’ is that it doesn’t change anything. It keeps the person facing the wrong way – backward instead of forward. It wastes time. In the end, if you let it become a habit, it can become a real roadblock – an excuse for not trying anymore.”
― Arthur Gordon, A Touch of Wonder

“The man was right who said that salt water was a cure for everything...in one of three forms, tears, sweat, or the sea.”
― Arthur Gordon, Through Many Windows

“Rhythm. Life is full of it; words should have it, too. But you have to train your ear. Listen to the waves on a quiet night; you’ll pick up the cadence. Look at the patterns the wind makes in dry sand and you’ll see how syllables in a sentence should fall. Arthur Gordon”
― Arthur Gordon, A Touch of Wonder

“It’s the person who likes to pat dogs to whom dogs come for pats.”
― Arthur Gordon, A Touch of Wonder

“Let’s not be too harsh where poets are concerned. They have to live in no-man’s-land, halfway between dreams and reality.”
― Arthur Gordon, A Touch of Wonder

“Words. Just little black marks on paper. Just sounds in the empty air. But think of the power they have! They can make you laugh or cry, love or hate, fight or run away. They can heal or hurt. They even come to look and sound like what they mean. Angry looks angry on the page. Ugly sounds ugly when you say it.”
― Arthur Gordon, A Touch of Wonder

“There was something about him that drove the shyness out of you, a kind of understanding that went deeper than words and set up an instantaneous closeness. It was odd; we couldn’t have been more different. Arthur Gordon”
― Arthur Gordon

“(It’s) a fair exchange. You’re giving me attention. That’s a form of affection, you know.”
― Arthur Gordon, A Touch of Wonder

“You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. Failure is a teacher – a harsh one, perhaps, but the best. You say you have a desk full of rejected manuscripts? That’s great! Every one of those manuscripts was rejected for a reason. Have you pulled them to pieces looking for that reason? You’ve got to put failure to work for you. That’s where you’ll find success. On the far side of failure.”
― Arthur Gordon, A Touch of Wonder

“Some criticism, no doubt, is constructive, but too much is a subtle poison.”
― Arthur Gordon, A Touch of Wonder

“Sincerity is an easy target, but I don’t want to excise sincerity from my life – that’s a lonely way to live.”
― Lindy West, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

“I felt something start to unclench deep inside me. What if my body didn't have to be a secret? What if I was wrong all along - what if this was all a magic trick, and I could just decide I was valuable and it would be true? Why, instead had I left that decision in the hands of strangers who hated me? Denying people access to value is an incredibly insidious form of emotional violence, one that our culture wields aggressively and liberally to keep marginalized groups small and quiet.”
― Lindy West, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

“Mike made me feel lonely, and being alone with another person is much worse than being alone all by yourself.”
― Lindy West, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman