E.K. Barnes > E.K.'s Quotes

“Before you criticize a man, walk a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do criticize him, you'll be a mile away and have his shoes.”
― Steve Martin

“Blessed - lucky - are those who cry. Blessed are those who are sad, who mourn, who feel the loss of what they love - because they will be held by the One who loves them. There is a strange and aching happiness only the hurting know - for they shall be held.”
― Ann Voskamp, The Broken Way: A Daring Path into the Abundant Life

“Separation shall not define
Beats getting weak in my heart
Instead
Be lull but me mine
Darling—stay bleak in my heart

Your lament mourned in storms
Some cries cling deep in my heart
It is who
Crossed leagues to die in my arms
Who has born to weep in my heart”
― Mirza Sharafat Hussain Beigh

“Is there any good left in the world/ And if there is, can you still find it in the places that matter? Why is it that the only places i see it now, is in the graves of the victims, and the tears of those who mourn them?”
― Christina Engela, For Love of Leelah

“We thought too much.
Because while hatred is a fire only man feels, he does not hate the beast that comes in the night. Mankind fears it, fights it, drives it off, but he does not hate it. No one hates the bear, he wolf. They don't hate the wind or the snow. They don't hate the death.
They hate each other.”
― Meagan Spooner, Hunted

“Only the cruelest hunters set their traps with terror and trepidation.”
― Nenia Campbell, Black Beast

“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.”
― Krishnamurti

“Nothing is more frightening than a fear you cannot name.”
― Cornelia Funke, Inkheart

“The fear of an unknown never resolves, because the unknown expands infinitely outward, leaving you to cling pitifully to any small shelter of the known: a cracker has twelve calories; the skin, when cut, bleeds.”
― Caroline Kettlewell, Skin Game

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.”
― Maya Angelou

“A woman's heart should be so hidden in God that a man has to seek Him just to find her.”
― Maya Angelou

“Stepping onto a brand-new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation, which is not nurturing to the whole woman.”
― Maya Angelou

“When Great Trees Fall

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance,
fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance
of dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.”
― Maya Angelou

“Sometimes, I don’t think I will ever know what real love feels like, and I hate that.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Sister's Imposition

“I usually hate it when you try to help people that don’t want or deserve it, but, for what it’s worth, I think you should help her.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Brother's Sacrifice

“That thing is old and crumbling and I have no idea why he had never replaced it with a nicer one, but it is filled with some of the most real expressions- fear, anger, sadness, jealousy, love- and it relays a journey that is absolutely unforgettable.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Sister's Imposition

“I want kids. I want kids who know their parents love them.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Sister's Imposition

“I don’t think anybody knows what real love is like.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Sister's Imposition

“They had always been good about helping him with money, but never with love.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Sister's Imposition

“As I held him in my arms for that first time, I realized that nobody could ever love him more than I could.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Sister's Imposition

“I keep going to church every Sunday hoping it’ll save me, but all it’s doing is sucking the life out of everybody that I love...”
― E.K. Barnes, A Brother's Sacrifice

“I love you, Catherine Elizabeth. I hope you still love me too.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Brother's Sacrifice

“The giving up of hurting others was due to the love he held for the person he cared most about in the world.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Brother's Sacrifice

“The promise still remained. She will be loved.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Brother's Sacrifice

“Every day is a new day to start over again – tell your brother his new haircut is nice, compliment your sister on her new dress, and tell your family that you love them very dearly.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Brother's Sacrifice

“Although my father had fallen in love with that church, his connection with it had led to our downfall.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Brother's Sacrifice

“Your parents remember him. Every inch of him. They remember the color of his eyes, his hair, how much he weighed, how long he stretched, and I’m sure they loved every inch of him.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Sister's Imposition

“God, I don’t even remember her ever being a normal mom.”
― E.K. Barnes, A Sister's Imposition