Nina

“Every form of happiness is private. Our greatest moments are personal, self-motivated, not to be touched. The things which are sacred or precious to us are the things we withdraw from promiscuous sharing. But now we are taught to throw everything within us into public light and common pawing. To seek joy in meeting halls. We haven't even got a word for the quality I mean--for the self-sufficiency of man's spirit. It's difficult to call it selfishness or egotism, the words have been perverted, they've come to mean Peter Keating. Gail, I think the only cardinal evil on earth is that of placing your prime concern within other men. I've always demanded a certain quality in the people I liked. I've always recognized it at once--and it's the only quality I respect in men. I chose my friends by that. Now I know what it is. A self-sufficient ego. Nothing else matters.”
― Ayn Rand

“...the smaller the space between your desire and what is right, the happier you will be.”
― Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins

“And even if Amina didn't yet know what it was to love like that, to burn until your spine has no choice but to try to wind itself around an empty shirt, she understood for sure that the people who said it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all were a bunch of dicks.”
― Mira Jacob, The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing

“Physical comfort--materialism, if you like--is the enemy of any serious spirituality, I think. When we're warm and well fed, our souls can be empty and we still make it through the day. And as I've discovered recently, it is the greatest poverty of all.”
― Lucinda Riley, The Midnight Rose