Karen Patrick > Karen's Quotes

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“And suddenly she is exhausted. And sad. A sadness so vast she feels like she is drowning in it... Because nothing is going to change.”
― Joanne Ramos, The Farm

“Your now is not your forever.”
― John Green, Turtles All the Way Down

“I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in human evolution. We became too self aware; nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by natural law. We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, a secretion of sensory experience and feeling, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody’s nobody. I think the honorable thing for our species to do is deny our programming, stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction, one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.”
― Rustin Cohle

“Name one hero who was happy."
I considered. Heracles went mad and killed his family; Theseus lost his bride and father; Jason's children and new wife were murdered by his old; Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled by the fall from Pegasus' back.
"You can't." He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
"I can't."
"I know. They never let you be famous AND happy." He lifted an eyebrow. "I'll tell you a secret."
"Tell me." I loved it when he was like this.
"I'm going to be the first." He took my palm and held it to his. "Swear it."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the reason. Swear it."
"I swear it," I said, lost in the high color of his cheeks, the flame in his eyes.
"I swear it," he echoed.
We sat like that a moment, hands touching. He grinned.
"I feel like I could eat the world raw.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“Most women suffer thorns for the sake of the flowers, but we who wield power adorn ourselves with flowers to hide the sting of our thorns”
― Leigh Bardugo, King of Scars

“You will have memories
Because of what we did back then
When we were new at this,

Yes, we did many things, then - all
Beautiful...”
― Sappho, Come Close

“It was as if a morning-glory had bloomed in her throat, and all that blue and small pollen ate into my heart, violent and religious”
― Anne Sexton, Selected Poems

“Fairy tales are full of girls who wait, who endure, who suffer. Good girls. Obedient girls. Girls who crush nettles until their hands bleed. Girls who haul water for witches. Girls who wander through deserts or sleep in ashes or make homes for transformed brothers in the woods. Girls without hands, without eyes, without the power of speech, without any power at all. But then a prince rides up and sees the girl and finds her beautiful. Beautiful, not despite her suffering, but because of it.”
― Holly Black, The Lost Sisters

“You can't root yourself
In the ground, hoping the world
Will grow around you.

You were made to do
More than hide in the shadows
Of another's leaves”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems

“It's okay if some things
are always out of reach.
If you could carry all the stars
in the palm of your hand,
they wouldn't be
half as breathtaking”
― Caroline Kaufman, Light Filters in: Poems