The Dream To End All Dreams Quotes

“You’ve suffered a long time, yet you continue to stay, not because it’s easy but because you don’t want to hurt the people around you. Every day of your life so far, despite the pain, you have chosen to stay. People rarely talk about this side of suicide, but every time you make that decision not to end things, you’re making a sacrifice that most people can’t even begin to understand. You’re not a coward, you are not taking the ‘easy way out.’ You’re fighting a battle every single day, and you’re doing it out of love. I don’t think you realise just how brave that is. Not only is it an act of incredible selflessness, but it is something quite extraordinary.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“I stood in front of the stranger again. Now that I saw him in a lifeless state, I noticed that there was no change in the world around him after he had gone. Babies were being born on the floor above, their cries of life breaking off and floating down through the open window. Outside, trains still whizzed on by, the passengers oblivious to the tragic events that unfolded here every day. People in the next room laughed. Life went on. Life went on and the world continued to turn.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“Strange to think that the same life that is so full of wisdom, happiness and love can be condensed into nothing more than a brief dash between two dates.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“There is no right way to recover, but there is a wrong way, that is if you don’t try to recover at all.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“Death is cruel, so cruel that even just its presence causes suffering. The constant anxiety, sadness and irritability, knowing that nothing will last forever. That all the things we do, make, and achieve, will vanish or be forgotten, including us. All this from the quiet, miserable, senseless neighbour that often visits when we least expect it.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“The truth is, most of us don’t want to harm each other. We just want the bus to turn up on time, and to thank the driver as we get off. To wave and smile at the postie as we pass him in the street, and for our friends to get home safely after a night out.
We’re simple creatures really, and I know we’ve grown far from the foresters and hunter-gatherers we once were, but after all that time, to know that love and kindness are still our default states of being, well I think that’s quite something.
Whenever I feel sad, I look for those little bits of love. The calm and quiet types. If you miss them, as I often do, don’t feel bad. Most of us don’t pay attention to the sea when it is calm.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“Headlines and newspapers like to make out that we live in a world full of hatred and violence, but I don’t think that’s true. I could spend hours going into detail about every exception, but that's not the point. The point is, if you pay close attention, in almost every instance of our lives you’ll find that love is all around us. Small, subtle acts of kindness, strangers standing up to let you get to your seat at the theatre. Holding open the door and smiling, reaching for something high on a shelf. Love that is often too quiet to notice, too gentle to recognise. But it’s still love.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“Time isn’t a currency. You can’t save it, you can’t store it, and the rich certainly don’t have more of it. Time is a problem, a solution, a gift and a curse. It’s everything we have and don’t. The passage of time is somewhat of an illusion, and like an illusion, it depends on how you view it. But one thing is for certain, we must learn to enjoy what we have of it.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“Life is simply the long undressing for the dark endless night.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“So much beauty lies in creation. Those inherent attempts to express how we truly feel. Opening ourselves to the world, letting others in. Showing others that they are seen and acknowledged. A sense of belonging. A sense of being. There is nothing more important.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“Art may be criticised, mocked and burned, but it can never be ignored.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“I just wish people could see ageing for what it is, experience, authenticity and depth. It is not a sign of decline or loss, it’s quite the opposite. Too many friends of mine never had the opportunity to grow old. It’s a privilege to age, don’t you forget it.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“There is one change everyone seems to be scared of, ageing. We all wish we could grow older without negative challenges or changes. The aching joints. thinning hair, sagging skin. But every one of those changes tells a story and I think there's something beautiful in that.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“We spend our lives seeking comfort, and when we find it, we bury ourselves deep within it. But on the odd occasion, when all is quiet, something will come along that’ll rip us out of the ground and throw us into the unknown. A place where everything means nothing, nothing means everything and where comforts cease to be. It’s hard, there's no denying that, but remember, often the hardest and most unexpected situations can encourage the best type of change, growth.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“There's something very human about admiration, noticing good qualities in others and trying to embody them. We need our heroes, they inspire, teach and motivate and they’re often the only ones who can cut through the noise.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“Everything was as it was. My dad's tools, laid out as if he were coming back. Everything as it was before, but missing the most important piece. I stared at it all, aching from the empty silence. It wasn’t his death that hurt me, it was the things that proved he was alive.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“our faces are mosaics of people who fell in love.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“Literature is always good. Stories are particularly powerful because they support the illusion that life has direction and purpose. Where God fails to show his hand, the writer shows his. When so much around us seems meaningless, stories give meaning. Stories don’t judge, yet they teach us, nurture us and while life goes on, they do us the favour of ending.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“Religion is great at providing comfort as it attempts to describe the universe we live in, why we die, and why certain things happen. But like everything in life, we can only see and judge through our own eyes.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“Flowers. Every flower goes through stages of budding, opening ,closing and wilting. Each of them has a preferred season and environment. They are unique. Like us. Each of us is unique. And like flowers, we each have a preferred season. So why do we expect ourselves to be in bloom all year round?”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“The soil beneath our feet is absolutely brimming with life. We often spend too much time looking up to the sky that we fail to notice the life beneath our feet. I love making soil. Layering plants, food and waste in just the right amounts. Feeding, watering and turning it as needed. Holding it in my hand as I feel the heat from the trillions of unseen bacteria. Watching as it transforms it right before my eyes. Nurturing it so it can sustain life. Life! The same life that me and you possess. It’s an entire universe in itself. When I eat food that has been grown with my compost I get the satisfaction that I have created a circle of life. I put some of that energy right back into the soil and then use it. It doesn’t matter if we are plants, animals or people. Decomposition is just a part of the circle of life.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“Compared to the size of the universe we are small and insignificant, but you’ve got to keep it in perspective. We’re lucky really, I mean think of the odds of you existing at all. The universe went through a billion acts of chance that led to you being conceived, millions of chemical reactions occurred just to make you, you. Think of all the potential people that could have been but didn’t get the chance. Look around. The mere fact that the universe is so large and yet we are able to be here like we are is amazing. We are unlike any other planet or species in the universe. Don’t look at it all and think we’re insignificant. We’re the equivalent of someone finding a diamond the size of a grain of sand on a beach the size of Mars. We are small, but we ARE significant.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“I know moving forward can be frightening, but staying in the same place seems even more horrific, doesn’t it?”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“If you fight back, you’ll have a chance, but not a guarantee. If you don't fight back, you’ll have a guarantee and not a chance.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“The past shouldn’t be a place to live in, it should be a place to learn from.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“One must be ready to question, able to believe and open to change. For without doubt we are easily deceived, without belief we learn nothing new and without change we cannot move forward.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“when I’m drunk, I often tell the truth.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“it matters not what you look at, but what you see.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“Cameras have a special kind of magic. You can reframe the familiar and make the everyday seem extraordinary. That's why I adore them.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams

“How I react to the rain won’t change the fact that it’s raining.”
― Rebecca Ryder, The Dream To End All Dreams