=^._.^=

“Trust, which is a virtue, is also a habit, like prayer. It requires exercise.”
― Sue Halpern, Migrations to Solitude: The Quest for Privacy in a Crowded World

“There is an anxiety in being yourself, though. There is the haunting question of "What if?" always lingering. What if who I am will never be enough? What if I will never be right enough for someone?”
― Roxane Gay, Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body

“Smile, sweetheart” is an ostensibly less offensive remark, but it is expressive of the same insidious demand that a woman’s face be emotionally legible.”
― Kate Manne, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny

“I felt as if this pain would never be appeased, that it had me in its grip for ever, that it would prevent me from devoting myself to anything else, and that I was allowing it to do so. I think that is what they call being consumed with remorse.”
― Jacqueline Harpman, I Who Have Never Known Men