A Pessimist's Guide to Love Quotes

“And then when you experience that worst possible thing, you see it happening again. And again. You see it everywhere, in everyone you get close to. You wonder if that text or phone call is going to be the last one you’ll ever get. You wonder if you’ll ever see that person again when they walk out your front door. You lose touch with the present moment, with all the moments that make us live and thrive and breathe. You’re always in your head, dreading the next moment, and the one after that, when all we should be doing is cherishing the ones we have.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“She says my name in the same way she always says it, like she combed through a dictionary until she landed on her favorite word, and no word since has ever compared.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“Songs are funny like that—you might not hear them play for years, but you still remember every word. And I think it’s because songs are more than words, more than notes, more than verses and choruses. Words fade and scatter over time, but songs tied to life’s most precious memories live inside of us forever.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“You feel like my one and only anchor, Lucy, and I just can’t shake the feeling that I’m going to sink you down with me.” “I won’t let you sink. We’ll rise above.” “It’s not that simple. You were born strong,” he responds wearily. “I wasn’t.” “Nobody is born strong, Cal. Nobody.” Moving closer, I skim my gaze over his taut features and strengthen my voice as I finish, “But, we’re all born fighters. And sometimes, the thing we’re fighting for is strength.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“Home is something I buried a long time ago,” he tells me, voice cracking with sentiment. A breath passes between us, a drumbeat. And then he whispers, “But I buried it inside you. Just in case I ever wanted to go back.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“There’s no reason for suffering, but there’s always a reason to keep going.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“It never occurred to me that I ever had any real friends before. People said they cared, people even showed they cared. But when you don’t see yourself as being worthy of good things in your life, you become ignorant to those things.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“only worked a half day—I wanted to do something nice for you. Something that could never compare to everything you’ve done for me. The patience, the forgiveness, the kindness. But…I wanted to try,” he says hoarsely. “You have to know that I’ve only pushed you away, kept you at a distance, because it’s my own fucked-up way of trying to protect you from me. It’s not because I don’t want you in every way imaginable, and it’s not that I can’t see a life with you so damn vividly—it’s because I’m terrified of what that life will do to you. I drive myself crazy thinking about all the ways I’ll ruin this, ruin you.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“Within the tangled roots of grief, we stand to lose so much. But no one ever acknowledges what we stand to gain. Strength. Perspective. Appreciation. Resilience”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“When you think something is going in a certain direction, a curveball is thrown at you. Something you don’t expect.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“The only thing stronger than fear is our tenacity to overcome it.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“I’m not cured, and I’m not healed. It doesn’t work like that. A wake-up call isn’t a full recovery—it’s a first step. It’s awareness. It’s a slap in the face, a reminder that we all have something worth losing and the real breakthrough is in the uphill battle we fight to keep it. Not everybody wakes up. Some of us go right back to sleep, and I refuse to be that person. I”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“What I’m starting to realize is that things meant to happen are just going to happen. There’s no preparing, no preventing. They just happen. And the risks we take, the memories we make, are the only things that count. That’s all that matters. Everything else is going to happen anyway.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“I said the things in the past that mattered still matter. We carry the good with us and let go of all the rest. We release the parts that keep us hurting and stunted.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“The only thing stronger than fear is our tenacity to overcome”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love

“Sometimes all we can do is grab ahold of what we can and spin it into something worth treasuring.”
― Jennifer Hartmann, A Pessimist's Guide to Love