c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Prince or commoner, tenor or bass,Painter or plumber or never-do-well,Do me a favor and shut your face -Poets alone should kiss and tell.
— Dorothy Parker, The Collected Dorothy Parker
I have never bought into the idea that blood is thicker than water. Love and respect are meant to be earned from our children, our spouses, our families, and our friends.
— Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina
A family can be the bane of one's existence. A family can also be most of the meaning of one's existence. I don't know whether my family is bane or meaning, but they have surely gone away and left a large hole in my heart.
— Keri Hulme, The Bone People
Love falls in love with love; comes like an echo sounding back, searches its mirrored shadow within a look. 
— Mocco Wollert
He thought about this for a second. "True. But if you never really make friends, you probably don't have anyone to be your 2 a.m. Which would kind of suck. I just looked at him as he stirred his soup, carrots spinning in the liquid. "Your what?" "Two a.m." He swallowed, then said, "You know. The person you can call at two a.m. and, no matter what, you can count on them. Even if they're asleep or it's cold or you need to be bailed out of jail...they'll come for you. It's, like, the highest level of friendship.
— Sarah Dessen, What Happened to Goodbye
There’s nothing like that feeling of waiting for a guy. It’s the loneliest feeling in the world. Holding that cell phone in your hand as you take out the trash, use the bathroom, change the litter box. Fearful that the one second you aren’t looking will be when they call. Pathetic. And something I have done as recently as last week.
— Hilary Winston, My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me: And Other Stories I Shouldn't Share with Acquaintances, Coworkers, Taxi drivers, Assistants, Job Interviewers, Bikini Waxers, and Ex/Current/Future Boyfriends but Have
How dare you say it's nothing to me?Baby, you're the only light I ever saw.
— John Mayer, Continuum: Music by John Mayer
The girl was grateful to the young man for every bit of flattery; she wanted to linger for a moment in its warmth and so she said, 'You're very good at lying.''Do I look like a liar?''You look like you enjoy lying to women,' said the girl, and into her words there crept unawares a touch of the old anxiety, because she really did believe that her young man enjoyed lying to women.
— Milan Kundera, Laughable Loves
In your pursuit of your passions, always be young. In your relationship with others, always be grown-up. 
— Tom Brokaw
I can see that the sadness has returned. And it's not a beautiful sadness- beautiful sadness is a myth. Sadness turns our features to clay, not porcelain.
— David Levithan, Every Day
Oh for God's sake,' Heather said, 'I wish you two would just go out, fail miserably as a couple, and get it over with.
— Sarah Dessen, What Happened to Goodbye
You think being dead inside is bad until someone brings you back to life and stabs you in the chest without the intention of killing you.
— Denice Envall
When she was younger, she felt that he wanted to know everything about her, but she was sometimes afraid to tell too much. She was afraid he would know her too well, that he would find some weakness in her, some element that would turn him away, maybe even a quality she didn't even realize she possessed.
— Michael Stein
He is your friend who pushes you nearer to God.
— Abraham Kuyper
Needy people are like newborns, I have come to realize. One intoxicated night and BAM! You are stuck with this problem. You finally take it home and it wants to keep you up all night and cries when it isn’t sucking on various parts of your anatomy. It wants you there for everything – rocking, feeding, burping, changing... It’s ridiculous. If I wanted a kid I would have one. Until then, grow the hell up and stand on your own two feet, you little crazy.
— Chase Brooks
Women that can work a camera with ease often work men just as effortlessly for both require the same commitment to vanity and manipulation.
— Tiffany Madison
A man can know his father, or his son, and there might still be nothing between them but loyalty and love and mutual incomprehension.
— Marilynne Robinson, Gilead
If we are to feel the positive feelings of love, happiness, trust, and gratitude, we periodically also have to feel anger, sadness, fear, and sorrow.
— John Gray, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
Give a man a centimeter and he'll think he's a ruler.
— Janet Skeslien Charles, Moonlight in Odessa
Dominator culture teaches all of us that the core of our identity is defined by the will to dominate and control others. We are taught that this will to dominate is more biologically hardwired in males than in females. In actuality, dominator culture teaches us that we are all natural-born killers but that males are more able to realize the predator role. In the dominator model the pursuit of external power, the ability to manipulate and control others, is what matters most. When culture is based on a dominator model, not only will it be violent but it will frame all relationships as power struggles.
— bell hooks
Do not hold your breath for anyone,Do not wish your lungs to be still,It may delay the cracks from spreading,But eventually they will.Sometimes to keep yourself togetherYou must allow yourself to leave,Even if breaking your own heartIs what it takes to let you breathe.
— Erin Hanson
Just because a relationship ends, it doesn't mean it's not worth having.
— Sarah Mlynowski, Gimme a Call
It's unexpectedly painful to have become a pronoun.
— Robin    Black, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This
Friendships are nice. So is competence.
— Michael Crichton, Disclosure
I had a dream about you last night. We watched pornography together, but purely for the storyline.
— Michael  Summers, I Had a Dream About You
He doesn’t have to love your CD collection. He doesn’t have to love your shoes. But any good, mature guy better make an attempt to love your friends and family—especially when they’re great.
— Greg Behrendt, He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys
I miss you in waves and tonight I’m drowning. You left me fending for my life and it feels like you’re the only one who can bring me back to the shore alive.
— Denice Envall
We look down our noses at people who've made mistakes in relationships. She's so stupid! How could she do that! Our superiority makes us feel better. But I’d bet everything I have on the fact that people to claim to have a perfect record in love are either lying or have very limited dating experience. People who say, I’d never do that! Someday, unless you are very, very lucky, you’ll have a story to tell. Or not to tell.
— Deb Caletti, The Secret Life of Prince Charming
Your first impulse is to share good news, your second is to club someone with it.
— Stephen King, The Stand
That guys. Sideburns. You like him?"My back squirms. "You've asked me that before.""What I meant was," he says, flustered. "Your feelings haven't changed? Since you've been 
— Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss
You don't stop loving someone just because you hate them.
— Hanif Kureishi, Intimacy
It's easy to like someone from a distance. But when she stopped being this amazing unattainable thing or whatever, and started being, like, just a regular girl with a weird relationship with food and frequent crankiness wh's kind of bossy--then I had to basically start liking a whole different person.
— John Green
We had been friends. We could not become strangers. It left only one thing: we must be enemies.
— John Christopher, The Prince in Waiting
Because he could not afford to fail, he could not afford to trust.
— Joseph J. Ellis, His Excellency: George Washington
Please don’t hate you??!! I hate that I love you. Loving you made me waste a year of my life. Lovingyou made me be passionate about nothing but you. Loving you made me take risks I never would haveotherwise. Loving you made me give it up to you. Loving you made me neglect my parents and Amy.Loving you made me not care that my grandma just died. Loving you made me turn out bitter andhopeless like her. Loving you made me hate myself for being dumped by you. Loving you made medeluded, irrational, inconsiderate, and a liar. And because I love you, you’re always going to haunt me.
— Daria Snadowsky, Anatomy of a Boyfriend
When we love someone our love becomes demonstrable or real only through our exertion - through the fact that for that someone (or for ourself) we take an extra step or walk an extra mile. Love is not effortless. To the contrary, love is effortful.
— M. Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth
The snag about marriage is, it isn´t worth the divorce.
— Suzanne Finnamore, Split: A Memoir of Divorce
Everyone creates realities based on their own personal beliefs. These beliefs are so powerful that they can create [expansive or entrapping] realities over and over.~Kuan Yin
— Hope Bradford, Beneficial Law of Attraction: The Manifestation Teachings
You're walking funny," Lucy said, a shit-eating grin on her face. Five days of out of this world sex with a starving man could do that to a girl."You're just jealous." Brenna pushed through the door into DarkRiver's business HQ.Lucy made a mournful face. "Yes, I am. Goddamn but your man is hot. And he smiles at you! I've seen him do it, even if no one believes me.
— Nalini Singh, Caressed by Ice
Love doesn't erase the past, but it makes the future different.
— Gary Chapman, The Five Love Languages Singles Edition
When you've been around as long as me, Lucy, you'll know that there are three types of sex... One - brand-new, kitchen-table sex. Two - bedroom sex. Then number three - hallway sex, when you pass each other in the hallway and say 'Fuck you.'" - Lockie
— Kathy Lette, To Love, Honour And Betray
This is new to us, you know? Your mother's sorry. She's sorry that she hurt your feelings, and she wants you to invite your girlfriend over for dinner.""So that she can make her feel bad and weird?""Well she is kind of weird, isn't she?"Park didn't have the energy to be angry. He sighed and let his head fall back on the chair. His dad kept talking. "Isn't that why you like her?
— Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park
Relationship gurus always said that an attraction based on friendship and mutual respect was far more likely to stay the course - and the bastards were right.
— Marian Keyes, The Other Side of the Story
Someone asked me about the difference between love and lust. Hmmm. That will take a little thought. How to tell the difference? Well, for guys, if she looks better AFTER you've made love to her than before, that might be love. If you find yourself itching to get out the door afterward, probably just lust, y'know?
— Steven Barnes
You know your problem, Quentin? You keep expecting people not to be themselves.
— John Green, Paper Towns
Tanith frowned. Did people still go on DATES any more? She was sure they did. They probably called it something different though. She tried to think of the last date she'd been on. The last PROPER date. Did fighting side by side with Saracen Rue count as a date? They ended up snuggling under the moonlight, drenched in gore and pieces of brain - so it had PROBABLY been a date. If it wasn't, it was certainly a fun time had by all. Well, not ALL. But she and Saracen had sure had a blast.
— Derek Landy, Mortal Coil
A good place to meet a man is at the dry cleaner. These men usually have jobs and bathe.
— Rita Rudner
Why?' He asked.'Why what?' What could I say? Noah, despite you being an asshole, or maybe because of it, I'd like to rip off your clothes and have your babies. Don't tell.
— Michelle Hodkin, The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer
Don't let a thief into your house three times. The first time was enough. The second time was a chance. The third time means you're stupid.
— C. JoyBell C.
One of the most important of life´s lessons is to learn independance, to understand freedom. This means independence from attachments, from results, from opinions, and from expectations. Breaking attachments leads to freedom, but breaking attachments does not mean abandoning a loving and meaningful relationship, a relationship that nourrishes your soul. It means ending dependency on any person or thing. Love is never a dependency.
— Brian L. Weiss, Messages from the Masters: Tapping into the Power of Love
Shame isn't a strong enough word for what I feel. "You could live a hundred lifetimes and not deserve him, you know," Haymitch says.
— Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire
Those who take lightly promises they make to those they love are people who find little lasting satisfaction in life. This is not an easy time in which to live. That does not mean that it has to be a difficult time to love, but it does mean that you will find unusual stresses upon your lives and your relationship.
— Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension
Over time as most people fail the survivor's exacting test of trustworthiness, she tends to withdraw from relationships. The isolation of the survivor thus persists even after she is free.
— Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
Don't. Don't let's pretend when there's no one around.
— Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
Regrets came up and asked me if I’d like to own them. Declined them for the most part but took a few just so I wouldn’t leave this relationship empty handed.
— Steve Toltz, A Fraction of the Whole
All of them, all except Phineas, constructed at infinite cost to themselves these Maginot Lines against this enemy they thought they saw across the frontier, this enemy who never attacked that way-if he ever attacked at all; if he was indeed the enemy.
— John Knowles, A Separate Peace
She couldn't be on his wavelength all the time. That's all. When you could recognize that and deal with it, you were on your way to an adult relationship.
— Stephen King, The Stand
They feel life is for the taking, and that everyone deserves happiness no matter what the cost. I must remember these tricks if I ever decide to have my soul surgically removed.
— Suzanne Finnamore, Split: A Memoir of Divorce
On the left side of a strong woman, stands a strong man; he is strengthened by her character.
— Ellen J. Barrier
Alas, woman is faithful as long as she loves, but you demand that she be faithful without love and give herself without enjoyment. Who is cruel then, woman or man?
— Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Venus in Furs
Most people think everybody feels about them much more violently than they actually do they think other people's opinions of them swing through great arcs of approval or disapproval. 
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night
Someday I will have revenge. I know in advance to keep this to myself, and everyone will be happier. I do understand that I am expected to forgive N and his girlfriend in a timely fashion, and move on to a life of vegetarian cooking and difficult yoga positions and self-realization, and make this so much easier and more pleasant for all concerned.
— Suzanne Finnamore, Split: A Memoir of Divorce
They (penguins) then fall madly in love and live happily ever after.-And so you ask yourself: "If a penguin can have a worthwhile, stimulating relationship, why the hell can't I?"-Or maybe you ask yourself: "Would I be happier if I started dating a penguin
— Bradley Trevor Greive, Looking for Mr. Right
I look at him with the nostalgic affection men are said to feel for their wars, their fellow veterans. I think, I once threw things at this man. I threw a glass ashtray, a fairly cheap one which didn't break. I threw a shoe (his) and a handbag (mine), not even snapping the handbag shut first, so that he was showered with a metal rain of keys and small change. The worst thing I threw was a small portable television set, standing on the bed and heaving it at him with the aid of the bouncy springs, although the instant I let fly I thought, Oh God, let him duck! I once thought I was capable of murdering him. Today I feel only a mild regret that we were not more civilized with each other at the time. Still, it was amazing, all those explosions, that recklessness, that Technicolor wreckage. Amazing and agonizing and almost lethal.
— Margaret Atwood, CAT'S EYE.
Hearts set about finding other hearts the moment they are born, and between them, they weave nets so frightfully strong and tight that you end up bound forever in hopeless knots, even to the shadow of a beast you knew and loved long ago.
— Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There
Surprises, I feel now, are primarily a form of violence.
— Suzanne Finnamore, Split: A Memoir of Divorce
I love you as the mother of my child": the kiss of death.Mother of His Child: demotion. I am beginning to see this truism: Mothers are not always wives. I have been stripped of a piece of self.
— Suzanne Finnamore, Split: A Memoir of Divorce
He announces that lately he keeps losing things. "Like your wife and child," I want to say, but don´t. At fourty, I´ve learned not to say everything clever, not to score every point.
— Suzanne Finnamore, Split: A Memoir of Divorce
Often we take personally the slings and arrows of our 'abusers'. But frequently we are merely the interchangeable pawns of their own neurotic dramas. Anyone else in your position would have received the same treatment. There is nothing especially noxious or negatively noteworthy about you.
— Brian L. Weiss, Messages from the Masters: Tapping into the Power of Love
It is not lies or a lack of loyalty that ends a relationship. It is the agonizing truth that one person feels in their heart on a daily basis. It is realizing that you are coping and not living. It is the false belief that there is a verse, quote, phrase or talk that will magically make you feel content, complete or not care. However, it doesn’t last longer than a few days, before your mind and heart goes back to what it wants. It is the moment you realize that you left without ever leaving. It is the moment you realize that fear, shame or guilt is the only thing standing in the way of the life God meant for you to live.
— Shannon L. Alder
You could say that Elphaba brought us together,' said Boq softly. 'I'm closer to her and so I'm closer to you.'Galinda seemed to give up. She leaned her head back on the velvet cushions of the swing and said, 'Boq, you know despite myself I think you're a little sweet. You're a little sweet and you're a little charming and you're a little maddening and you're a little habit-forming.'Boq held his breath.But you're little!' she concluded. 'You're a Munchkin, for god's sake!'He kissed her, he kissed her, he kissed her, little by little by little.
— Gregory Maguire, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
I will never claim to know what you are thinking. I only hope I am on your mind.
— Amanda Mosher, Better to be able to love than to be loveable
That’s always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people would want to be around someone because they’re pretty. It’s like picking your breakfast cereals based on color instead of taste.
— John Green, Paper Towns
time made me stronger, you're no longer on my mind
— Boyz II Men
You can't truly hate someone until you've cared about them. Until you've loved them.
— Kirsten Hubbard, Like Mandarin
I have to go. I have a finite amount of life left and I don't want to spend it arguing with you.
— Jenny Trout, Ashes to Ashes
A person shows signs of clutching on too fast, of being needy, of not hearing the word "no," of jealousy, of guarding you and your freedom. But the signs can be so small they skitter right past you. Sometimes they dance past, looking satiny, something you should applaud. Someone's jealousy can make you feel good. Special. But it's not even about you. It's about a hand that is already gripping. It's about their need, circling around your throat
— Deb Caletti, Stay
The foundation of adult trust is not "You will never hurt me." It is "I trust myself with whatever you do.
— David Richo, Daring to Trust: Opening Ourselves to Real Love and Intimacy
Still, she knows one thing for certain: never judge a relationship unless you are the one wrapped up in its arms.
— Alice Hoffman, Local Girls
In love, women are professionals, men are amateurs
— François Truffaut
I've found that when you're wrapped up in the process of dating and want so badly to have something work out with someone -anyone- it's easy to forget that your choices aren't limited to one person or the other. There's also the choice I always forget about: To not choose anyone in order to keep myself open to someone who IS right for me.
— Rachel Machacek, The Science of Single: One Woman's Grand Experiment in Modern Dating, Creating Chemistry, and Finding Love
Sure am glad I'm not royalty," I muttered. "I wouldn't want to have to bump uglies with someone I can't stand. On a regular basis. And no one else.""Ow!" I exclaimed, trying to yank my fingers from Trent but finding them caught. Then I colored, realizing what I'd said. "Oh… sorry," I stammered, meaning it. "That was insensitive."Trent's frown turned into a sly smirk. "Bump uglies?" he said, eyes on the table behind me. "You are a font of gutter slang, Rachel. We must do this again.
— Kim Harrison, For a Few Demons More
You know a relationship has deteriorated past the point of salvage when one person detests another's gestures.
— Josephine Humphreys, Rich in Love
It's as if every conversation with a woman was a test, and men always failed it, because they always lacked the key to the code and so they never quite understood what the conversation was really about.
— Orson Scott Card, Enchantment
Here was a boy who liked flaws, who saw them not as failings but as strengths. Who knew such a person could exist, or what would have happened if we'd found each other under different circumstances? Maybe in a perfect world. But not in this one.
— Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
He gave her a quick, casual kiss on the cheek first. Then came the hug, and it was the hug that always made Laurel’s heart mush. Serious grip, cheek to the hair, eyes closed, just a little sway. Del’s hugs mattered, she thought, and made him impossible to resist.
— Nora Roberts, Savor the Moment
For you she learned to wear a short black slipand red lipstick,how to order a glass of red wineand finish it. She learned to reach outas if to touch your arm and then nottouch it, changing the su
— Deborah Garrison, A Working Girl Can't Win
Alright, good night,” he said, his words a little slurred. “But before I pass out, I want you to know that you’re the hottest biscuit this side of the gravy boat.
— Erin McCarthy, Hard and Fast
He needs "space" and "time," as if this were physics and not a human relationship.
— Kathryn Stockett, The Help
Everybody deserves love, but nobody is entitled to it.
— Katerina Stoykova Klemer
You will be a great queen when you come back, you know. And someday you'll love me the way you love your wolf.
— Carrie Jones, Entice
Hating hurts the hater the most. Hating is not a salve for the wounded soul, it is an abrasive that keeps the soul wounded and raw and oversensitive.
— Jack R. Rose
You might think that a boy is just your friend, but then if you find out that maybe he likes you (in a boyfriend way), everything changes instantly. (47)
— Charise Mericle Harper, Flashcards of My Life
That's one of the first things that comes out of young people's mouths when they're in love. FOREVER. And that's cool, it's all good-until you get old enough to realize what forever is.
— Ice-T, Ice: A Memoir of Gangster Life and Redemption-from South Central to Hollywood
He was everything your mother warned you about when she told you not to walk alone in the dark.
— Nenia Campbell, Armed and Dangerous
Just because you discover that you may like somebody after all, it doesn't necessarily mean there's any attraction.
— Steve Kluger
Love and honesty don’t mix.
— Miguel Syjuco, Ilustrado
Relationships are so much like the United States - they only really thrive when faced with an external threat.
— Laura Pedersen, Best Bet
I had a dream about you last night.. You were balancing ten tiny footballs on your nose while dancing with a turquoise unicorn.
— Amy Sommers, I Had a Dream About You
Trust in someone means that we no longer have to protect ourselves. We believe we will not be hurt or harmed by the other, at least not deliberately. We trust his or her good intentions, though we know we might be hurt by the way circumstances play out between us. We might say that hurt happens; it’s a given of life. Harm is inflicted; it’s a choice some people make.
— David Richo
We know so little about one another. We embrace a shadow and love a dream.
— Hjalmar Söderberg, Doctor Glas
She knew how breakups went from hearing other girls complain about them. First the pulling away, the gradual refusal to return notes or phone calls. The vague messages saying nothing was wrong, that the other person just needed a little space. Then the speech about how "It's not you, it's me." Then the crying part.She'd never thought any of that would apply to her and Jace. What they had wasn't ordinary, or subject to the ordinary rules of relationships and breakups. They belonged to each other totally, and always will, and that was that.But maybe everyone felt that way? Until the moment they realized they were just like everyone else, and everyone they'd thought was real shattered apart.
— Cassandra Clare, City of Fallen Angels
One of the most difficult things he'd ever done was turn away and leave her standing in the shadows.
— Rachel Gibson, I'm In No Mood For Love
I'm terrified of getting involved with someone who disappoints me or leaves me empty and alone. I'm terrified of rejection, so I set my expectations so high that they can never be met, and I dig around with a magnifying glass looking for flaws in very person I date. There's always a flaw to exploit, and I'll find it so I never have to get too close.
— Rachel Machacek, The Science of Single: One Woman's Grand Experiment in Modern Dating, Creating Chemistry, and Finding Love
People can attach themselves to something--an idea, another person, a desire--with an impossibly strong grip, and in the case of restless ghosts, a grip stronger than death. Will is a powerful thing. Will--it's supposed to be a good treat, a more determined and persistent version of determination and persistence. But will and obsession--they sit right next to each other. They pretend to be strangers and all the while meet secretly at midnight." -
— Deb Caletti, Stay
Sometimes our walls exist just to see who has the strength to knockthem down.
— Darnell Lamont Walker, Creep
Be careful whom you choose to love. This decision will impact your future life and happiness in ways you cannot yet imagine.
— Toni Coleman
But it became clear very quickly that I'd underestimated how much I liked him. Not him, perhaps, but the fact that I had someone on the other end of an invisible line. Someone to update and get updates from, to inform of a comic discovery, to imagine while dancing in a lonely basement, and to return to, finally, when the music stopped.
— Marina Keegan, The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories
Just start off with the same goals in mind. If you have the same values, same goals then you'll be on track for the same future.
— Angelina Jolie
A soul mate is not found. A soul mate is recognized.
— Vironika Tugaleva, The Love Mindset: An Unconventional Guide to Healing and Happiness
It is the same way with dating. The time you are most prepared for dating is when you don't need anyone to complete you, fulfill you, or instill in you a sense of worth or purpose.
— Myles Munroe, Waiting and Dating
Life had sure been simpler when I hadn't dated.
— Charlaine Harris, Dead Until Dark
Sometimes you met someone that changed the pattern, who wormed their way past the cracks in your heart, caulked them up, sealed themselves in, and stayed there. Sometimes they did it by insisting you meet them at every step, as Jamie had done to me.
— Diana Peterfreund, Tap & Gown
my only complaints are two:that I didn't make myself readyfor you sooner in life, thatI can't give you better,Love you more.
— Jan Beatty
I loved you at your worst, and you were always at your worst. Nothing could stop me. Not even you.
— Denice Envall
I still think I love him more. It's one of those things you never know for certain because there's no way to enter all the relationship data in a computer and have it spit out a definitive answer. You can't quantify love, and if you try, you wind up focusing on misleading factors.
— Emily Giffin, Baby Proof
The best baby-sitters, of course, are the baby’s grandparents. You feel completely comfortable entrusting your baby to them for long periods, which is why most grandparents flee to Florida.
— Dave Barry
To touch a person...to sleep with a person...is to become a pioneer," she whispered then, "a frontiersman at the edge of their private world, the strange, incomprehensible world of their interior, filled with customs you could never imitate, a language which sounds like your own but is really totally foreign, knowable only to them.
— Catherynne M. Valente, Palimpsest
How do you know? How best to ensure his nervous breakdown?" I ask."Keep going," Christian says. "Just go on as if nothing has happened. We all hate that.
— Suzanne Finnamore, Split: A Memoir of Divorce
The manlier you are, the harder it is to understand what a woman wants: there is not a hint of female brain in you.
— Criss Jami, Killosophy
Why, you are a man of heart!""Sometimes," replied Phileas Fogg, quietly. "When I have the time.
— Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days
And you can't have two stars in one relationship. Somebody has to be willing to be the wagon...at lease some of the time
— Meg Cabot, Queen of Babble Gets Hitched
Insanity is everyone expecting you not to fall apart when you find out everything you believed in was a lie.
— Shannon L. Alder
Don't be a fool. Don't give up something important to hold onto someone who can't even say they love you.
— Sarah Dessen, Someone Like You
People will walk in and walk out of your life, but the one whose footstep made a long lasting impression is the one you should never allow to walk out.
— Michael Bassey Johnson
To gaze into another persons face is to do two things: to recognise their humanity and to assert your own.
— Lawrence Hill, Someone Knows My Name
Sometimes the door closes on a relationship, not because we failed but because something bigger than us says this no longer fits our life. So, lock the door, shed a tear, turn around and look for the new door that's opened. It's a sign that you're no longer that person you were, it's time to change into who you are. It's going to be okay.
— Lee  Goff
It seemed that we loved each other better when there were large swaths of two continents between us. The daily work of love was often hard to perform at home. 
— Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project
Everyone has their first date and the object is to hide your flaws. And then you're in a relationship, and it's all about hiding your disappointment. And then, once you're married, it's about hiding your sins.
— Joss Whedon
Then I imagined a lifetime of having to cry to get him to be kind, and I went back to no again.
— Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
What's agitating about solitude is the inner voice telling you that you should be mated to somebody, that solitude is a mistake. The inner voice doesn't care about who you find. It just keeps pestering you, tormenting you--if you happen to be me--with homecoming queens first, then girls next door, and finally anybody who might be pleased to see you now and then at the dinner table and in bed on occasion. You look up from reading the newspaper and realize that no one loves you, and no one burns for you.
— Charles Baxter, El festín del amor
Why, then, did I always feel as if his happiness was my responsibility? It wasn't fair for him to burden me with that. It had never been fair.
— Melanie Benjamin, Alice I Have Been
Once you embrace your value, talents and strengths, it neutralizes when others think less of you.
— Rob Liano
Love, he realized, was like the daggers he made in his forge: When you first got one it was shiny and new and the blade glinted bright in the light. Holding it against your palm, you were full of optimism for what it would be like in the field, and you couldn't wait to try it out. Except those first couple of nights out were usually awkward as you got used to it and it got used to you.Over time, the steel lost its brand-new gleam, and the hilt became stained, and maybe you nicked the shit out of the thing a couple of times. What you got in return, however, saved your life: Once the pair of you were well acquainted, it became such a part of you that it was an extension of your own arm. It protected you and gave you a means to protect your brothers; it provided you with the confidnece and the power to face whatever came out of the night; and wherever you went, it stayed with you, right over your heart, always there when you needed it.You had to keep the blade up, however. And rewrap the hilt from time to time. And double-check the w
— J.R. Ward, Lover Unleashed
Ordinarily, I am the person who falls in love quickly and somewhat inappropriately and then goes on to destroy what is a good thing. That's always been my style. So, you know: I get it. And I feel right now the way I imagine all those guys felt with me. And I have to say, for the first time in my life, I feel something approaching compassion for them.
— Sarah Dunn, Secrets to Happiness
No, I am never setting foot in this house again it scares me and makes me sad and I wish you could be a mom whose eyes worked but I don't think you can. 
— Laurie Halse Anderson, Wintergirls
Miscommunication is endless.
— J.P. Rattie
Tina leans forward and asks quietly, 'Do you? You know? Love her?'Squeezing Nat’s knee again, I reply, 'She’s teachin’ me how.
— Belle Aurora, Love Thy Neighbour
And since I’m marrying into the Quartet, I have certain privileges and duties. If you’re sleeping with Laurel—”“I’m not sleeping with Laurel. We’re dating.”“Right, and the two of you are just going to hold hands, admire the moon, and sing camp songs.”“For a while. Minus the singing.
— Nora Roberts, Savor the Moment
We need to bridge our sense of loneliness and disconnection with a sense of community and continuity even if we must manufacture it from our time on the Web and our use of calling cards to connect long distance. We must “log on” somewhere, and if it is only in cyberspace, that is still far better than nowhere at all. (264)
— Julia Cameron, God is No Laughing Matter
What's the difference?" You ask meThe difference is, a smile touches my lipsWhen I remember both the memory of you entering my lifeAnd the memory of you leaving my life
— Tammy-Louise Wilkins, My Intimate Poetry
Sometimes, if she simply remained quiet, and let the inadequacy of his excuses reverberate on the air, he became ashamed and backtracked.
— J.K. Rowling, The Casual Vacancy
I didn't dream about you last night. I woke up in fear.
— Michael  Summers, I Had a Dream About You
God is great and God is good," Lisa says. "But where are the Apache attack helicopters when you need them?
— Suzanne Finnamore, Split: A Memoir of Divorce
Maybe that's what love is. Having someone who guides you through different experiences, coaxes you to try news things but still makes you feel safe.
— Wally Lamb, We Are Water
Never judge someone by their relatives.
— Charles Martin, Chasing Fireflies: A Novel of Discovery
Unless I understand the Cross, I cannot understand why my commitment to what is right must be precedence over what I prefer.
— Ravi Zacharias, I, Isaac, Take Thee, Rebekah: Moving from Romance to Lasting Love
We've lost a lot of years, but you can't lose love. Not real love. It stays locked inside you, ready for whenever you are strong enough to find it again.
— Martina Boone, Compulsion
When we replace a sense of service and gratitude with a sense of entitlement and expectation, we quickly see the demise of our relationships, society, and economy.
— Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
Often people that settle in life are those that only do what they can with what they have and where they are. Never settle for someone that didn't know your worth from the beginning, or build a life without God in it. Live beyond your low expectations.
— Shannon L. Alder
Some people don’t realize what they have until it’s gone, but that does not always mean they are supposed to get it back.
— Stephan Labossiere
Even if toxic people are right about what is "good," they are wrong if the approach is not healthy.
— John Lewis Lund, How to Hug a Porcupine: Dealing With Toxic & Difficult to Love Personalities
I used to want you so bad, I'm so through with that because honestly you turned out to be the best thing I never had!
— Beyoncé Knowles
I loved you because there was no other place for me to go. We were married because we did not know what else to do with each other. You never knew me, nothing about me, what died inside me, what lived invisibly.
— Aleksandar Hemon, The Lazarus Project
In the realm of love and sex, it’s girls who are in the position of working hard to adapt themselves to the needs and fantasies of the mercurial males whose approval and attention they seek.
— Meenakshi Gigi Durham, The Lolita Effect: The Media Sexualization of Young Girls and What We Can Do About It
The best defense is a confusing offense.
— Kimberly Pauley, Still Sucks to Be Me: More All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton Smith, Teen Vampire
I wanted to have a good relationship. One that's romantic and dramatic, like in the movies. But I finally became a woman at 17 and learned that men aren't really that simple.
— Ai Yazawa, Nana, Vol. 1
If somebody never gets enough of you, they will always want more
— Ashly Lorenzana
Isn't everyone a part of everyone else?
— Budd Schulberg
Better not to invent her in her absence. Better to wait until she's actually here. Then he can make her up as she goes along.
— Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
I wish I hadn't. I wish I'd fought for you. I was weak and stupid.
— S.J. Watson, Before I Go to Sleep
Take me now, God!" I shout to the inky sky. "I´m ready.""You´re not ready. You´re not even divorced yet," Bunny says. "You cannot die married to that man.
— Suzanne Finnamore, Split: A Memoir of Divorce
God is even in a single parent household.
— Karen Salmansohn, Even God is Single:
Failed relationships can be described as so much wasted makeup.Forget the laughs, forget the fights, forget the sex, forget the jealousy. But take off your hat and observe a moment's silence for the legions of unknown tubes of foundation, mascara, eyeliner, blusher and lipstick who died that it might all have been possible. But who died in vain.
— Marian Keyes, Watermelon
If thou dost seek to have what thou dost hide,By self-example mayst thou be denied.
— William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Sonnets
I had a dream about you last night. We stopped telling each other about our dreams when we realized we were still inside them.
— Michael  Summers, I Had a Dream About You
Disagreement is not necessarily a reason to head for Splitsville. In fact, a relationship without disagreement is probably too brittle to last. Some of the best human bonds are forged in the fire of disagreement.
— Jerry Spinelli, Today I Will: A Year of Quotes, Notes, and Promises to Myself
Everything else has vanished, so you take them now. Maybe if you're the one keeping them, I'll be the one feeling better.
— Daniel Handler, Why We Broke Up
As I saw it, all my mother's life, my father held her down, like lead strapped to her ankles.She wasbuoyant by nature;she wanted to travel,go to the theater, go to museums.What he wantedwas to lie on the couchwith the Timesover his face,so that death, when it came,wouldn't seem a significant change.
— Louise Glück, Ararat
Our lives were now worlds apart, separated by time, circumstance, and the unbridgeable chasm of money.
— Travis Luedke, The Shepherd
Happy wife, happy life.
— Paul Orfalea, Copy This!: Lessons from a Hyperactive Dyslexic who Turned a Bright Idea Into One of America's Best Companies
Only love that continues to flow in the face of anger, blame, and indifference can be called love. All else is simply a transaction.
— Vironika Tugaleva, The Love Mindset: An Unconventional Guide to Healing and Happiness
What was it about relationships that made you feel so vulnerable? Oh, right. A relationship. In any relationship, you put yourself out there. You exposed all of your sensitive nerve endings and your heart and you just had to hope that you trusted the right person.
— Courtney Cole, Every Last Kiss
It is with the soul that we grasp the essence of another human being, not with the mind, nor even with the heart.
— Henry Miller
Give a girl a boyfriend and she becomes a total expert on relationships
— Cecily von Ziegesar, You Know You Love Me
I was aware that we were both silently making those inevitable comparisons, putting our relationship in context. She is more this and less that. He is better or worse in these ways. It is human nature to do this--unless its your first relationship, which might be the very reason that your first relationship feels special and remains forever sacred. But the older you get, the more cynical you become, and the more complicated and convoluted the exercise is. You begin to realize that nothing is perfect, that there are trade-offs and sacrifices. The worst is when someone in your past trumps the person in the present, and you think to yourself: if I'd known this, then maybe I wouldn't have let him go.
— Emily Giffin, Baby Proof
I don't even know her yet..but if she could see me right now, I'd want her to know that I love her
— Eric Ludy, When Dreams Come True: A Love Story Only God Could Write
I believe that it is impossible for two individuals not committed to their own and each other’s well being to sustain a healthy and enduring relationship.
— bell hooks, Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life
Relationships never provide you with everything. They provide you with some things. You take all the things you want from a person -- sexual chemistry, let's say, or good conversation, or financial support, or intellectual compatibility, or niceness, or loyalty -- and you get to pick three of those things. The rest you have to look for elsewhere. It's only in the movies that you find someone who gives you all those things. But this isn't the movies. In the real world, you have to identify which three qualities you want to spend the rest of your life with, and then you look for those qualities in another person. That's real life. Don't you see it's a trap? If you keep trying to find everything, you'll wind up with nothing.
— Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
There was a tacit understanding between them that 'liquor helped' growing more miserable with every glass one hoped for the moment of relief. 
— Graham Greene, The Heart of the Matter
A break up is the closest thing to bereavement
— Lindsey Kelk, I Heart New York
You never know who's waiting for you and you never know when love is coming your way or who it might be. But let me just say, a healthy relationship requires SACRIFICE and DEDICATION.
— Jonathan Anthony Burkett, Friends 2 Lovers: The Unthinkable
Before her marriage she had thought that she had love within her grasp; but since the happiness which she had expected this love to bring her hadn’t come, she supposed she must have been mistaken. And Emma tried to imagine just what was meant, in life, by the words “bliss,” “passion,” and “rapture” - words that had seemed so beautiful to her in books.
— Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
There is nothing right or wrong in love. Where there is love, then there is nothing but only love.
— Sara Naveed, Undying Affinity
It was a bitter moment for us. We weren't two mature parents. We were just two kids playing grown-up. We still needed Mommy and Daddy's permission, blessings, and money to survive.
— Erma Bombeck
Hereafter she is only my sister in name; not because I disown her, but because she has disowned me.
— Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights
Understand the nature and influence of repeating patterns, from childhood experiences or even from past lives. Wthout understanding, patterns tend to repeat, unnecessarily damaging the relationship.
— Brian L. Weiss, Messages from the Masters: Tapping into the Power of Love
If I have to 'catch' a man to get a husband, I don't want one.
— Tamora Pierce, Shatterglass
I had a dream about you last night... you were there.
— Nicole McKay, I Had a Dream About You
In marriage, each partner is to be an encourager rather than a critic; a forgiver rather than a collector of hurts; an enabler rather than a reformer.
— H. Norman Wright
Jump, if you want to, ‘cause I’ll catch you, girl. I’ll catch you “fore you fall. Go as far inside as you need to, I’ll hold your ankles. Make sure you get back out. I’m not saying this because I need a place to stay. That’s the last thing I need. I told you, I’m a walking man, but I been heading in this direction for seven years. Walking all around this place. Upstate, downstate, east, west; I been in territory ain’t got no name, never staying nowhere long. But when I got here and sat out there on the porch, waiting for you, well, I knew it wasn’t the place I was heading toward; it was you. We can make a life, girl. A life.
— Toni Morrison, Beloved
In love, treat your relationship as if you are growing the most beautiful flower. Keep watering it, tend to its roots, give it lots of sunlight, and always make sure the petals are full of color and are never curling. Once you neglect your plant, it will die, as will your relationship.
— Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
I had a dream about you last night. We were plug sockets in the bedroom. We saw only a short part of their day, but we knew everything of it.
— Michael  Summers, I Had a Dream About You
In this storyI am the poetYou're the poetry.
— Arzum Uzun
An honorable human relationship – that is, one in which two people have the right to use the word "love" – is a process, delicate, violent, often terrifying to both persons involved, a process of refining the truths they can tell each other.It is important to do this because it breaks down human self-delusion and isolation.It is important to do this because in doing so we do justice to our own complexity.It is important to do this because we can count on so few people to go that hard way with us.
— Adrienne Rich, On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose, 1966-1978
To love everyone unconditionally does not mean to give everyone your unconditional time. Sometimes, to love completely, we must never see someone again. This, too, is love. This is giving someone the freedom to exist and be happy, even if it must be without you.
— Vironika Tugaleva
Perhaps love is a minor madness. And as with madness, it's unendurable alone. The one person who can relieve us is of course the sole person we cannot go to: the one we love. So instead we seek out allies, even among strangers and wives, fellow patients who, if they can't touch the edge of our particular sorrow, have felt something that cuts nearly as deep.
— Andrew Sean Greer, The Story of a Marriage
From someone who doesn't want to share your destiny, you should neither accept a cigarette
— Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand: Diaries, 1935-1950
When a girl uses six derogatory adjectives in her attempt to paint the portrait of the loved one, it means something. One may indicate a merely temporary tiff. Six is big stuff.
— P.G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Morning
But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people--first of all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness is wholly dependent, and then for the many, unknown to us, to whose destinies we are bound by the ties of sympathy.
— Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions
It is the mind which creates the world around us, and even though we stand side by side in the same meadow, my eyes will never see what is beheld by yours, my heart will never stir to the emotions with which yours is touched.
— George Gissing
It's always seemed to me that flirtation is a man's device for avoiding responsibility. He can say whatever he wants and knows he won't be taken seriously.
— G.G. Vandagriff, The Last Waltz