Jo > Jo's Quotes

“Threats are the last resort of a man with no vocabulary.”
― Tamora Pierce, Lady Knight

“I want love to be simple. I want to trust without thinking. I want to be generous with my affection and patience and love unconditionally. It is easier to love a person with their flaws than to weed through them. I want to love the whole person, not parts; and this is how I want to be loved.”
― Jewel Kilcher, Chasing Down the Dawn

“Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood.”
― Jane Yolen, Touch Magic: Fantasy, Faerie & Folklore in the Literature of Childhood

“Oh, I wouldn't mind, Hazel Grace. It would be a privilege to have my heart broken by you.”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“You think because he doesn't love you that you are worthless. You think that because he doesn't want you anymore that he is right -- that his judgement and opinion of you are correct. If he throws you out, then you are garbage. You think he belongs to you because you want to belong to him. Don't. It's a bad word, 'belong.' Especially when you put it with somebody you love. Love shouldn't be like that. Did you ever see the way the clouds love a mountain? They circle all around it; sometimes you can't even see the mountain for the clouds. But you know what? You go up top and what do you see? His head. The clouds never cover the head. His head pokes through, beacuse the clouds let him; they don't wrap him up. They let him keep his head up high, free, with nothing to hide him or bind him. You can't own a human being. You can't lose what you don't own. Suppose you did own him. Could you really love somebody who was absolutely nobody without you? You really want somebody like that? Somebody who falls apart when you walk out the door? You don't, do you? And neither does he. You're turning over your whole life to him. Your whole life, girl. And if it means so little to you that you can just give it away, hand it to him, then why should it mean any more to him? He can't value you more than you value yourself.”
― Toni Morrison

“They say you can't stop time, that it is a constant and waits for no one. The're wrong. Time slows when you want it to speed up. It goes too Fast when you're having fun. And it stops. It stops dead in its tracks, when the unthinkable occurs. Time is not neutral, it makes no sence, and it bears no logic. It has nothing to do with nature or fairness or physics. Time is cruel. And its as simple as that.”
― Heather Killough-Walden

“Before you act, listen.
Before you react, think.
Before you spend, earn.
Before you criticize, wait.
Before you pray, forgive.
Before you quit, try.”
― William Arthur Ward

“It is wise to direct your anger towards problems -- not people; to focus your energies on answers -- not excuses.”
― William Arthur Ward

“Before you speak, listen.
Before you write, think.
Before you spend, earn.
Before you invest, investigate.
Before you criticize, wait.
Before you pray, forgive.
Before you quit, try.
Before you retire, save.
Before you die, give.”
― William Arthur Ward

“The salvation of this human world lies nowhere else than in the human heart, in the human power to reflect, in human meekness and human responsibility.”
― Vaclav Havel

“Somewhere, all the people we have loved and lost are still among us, in the house that we call history.”
― Graham Masterton

“Parents always have their own ideas about how they wish their
children to be brought up, both morally and spiritually. But they must
understand that their children are not their property; that their children are
entitled to pursue happiness in any way they wish.”
― Graham Masterton, Ritual

“Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper.”
― Francis Bacon

“I used to dream about escaping my ordinary life, but my life was never ordinary. I had simply failed to notice how extraordinary it was.”
― Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

“When someone won't let you in, eventually you stop knocking.”
― Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

“Forgive me. I continue to underestimate the breadth of your ignorance.”
― Ransom Riggs, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

“Despite my ghoulish reputation, I really have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar on my desk.”
― Robert Bloch

“Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.”
― Charles Bukowski

“Because God is never cruel, there is a reason for all things. We must know the pain of loss; because if we never knew it, we would have no compassion for others, and we would become monsters of self-regard, creatures of unalloyed self-interest. The terrible pain of loss teaches humility to our prideful kind, has the power to soften uncaring hearts, to make a better person of a good one.”
― Dean Koontz, The Darkest Evening of the Year

“Maybe God had needed her to suffer so she could understand the suffering of others and help them heal.”
― Paige Dearth, Believe Like a Child

“Oh, Life, I am yours. Whatever it is you want of me, I am ready to give.”
― William Steig, Dominic

“I guess we'll have to get you a Taser too.” Meow. “No, I'm not getting you a knife.” Meow. “We'll discuss this when I get back.”
― Nick Pirog, 3 a.m.

“The rest of my room is book shelves. I hoard books. They are people who do not leave.”
― Anne Sexton, Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters