c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
-i was "far and away"-riding my motorcycle along an american back road, skiing through the snowy Quebec woods, or lying awake in a backwater motel. the theme i was grappling with was nothing less than the Meaning of Life, and i was pretty sure i had defined it: love and respect.love and respect, love and respect-i have been carrying those words around with me for two years, daring to consider that perhaps they convey the real meaning of life. beyond basic survival needs, everybody wants to be loved and respected. and neither is any good without the other. love without respect can be as cold as pity; respect without love can be as grim as fear.love and respect are the values in life that most contribute to "the pursuit of happiness"-and after, they are the greatest legacy we can leave behind. it's an elegy you'd like to hear with your own ears: "you were loved and respected."if even one person can say that about you, it's a worthy achievement, and if you can multiply that many times-well, that is true success.among materialists, a certain bumper sticker is emblematic: "he who dies with the most toys wins!"well, no-he or she who dies with the most love and respect wins...then there's love and respect for oneself-equally hard to achieve and maintain. most of us, deep down, are not as proud of ourselves as we might pretend, and the goal of bettering ourselves-at least partly by earning the love and respect of others-is a lifelong struggle.Philo of Alexandria gave us that generous principle that we have somehow succeeded in mostly ignoring for 2,000 years: "Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
— Neil Peart, Far and Away: A Prize Every Time
The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever
— Westminster Shorter Catechism
To sit and contemplate - to remember the faces of women without desire, to be pleased by the great deeds of men without envy, to be everything and everywhere in sympathy and yet content to remain where and what you are.
— Virginia Woolf, The Common Reader
Love is a connection with another person, either through birth or through something else that I cannot even explain. It is often just an attraction at first. But it goes far deeper than that. It is a determination to care for the other person no matter what and to allow oneself to be cared for in return. It is a commitment to make the other happy and to be happy oneself. It is not possessive, but neither is it a victim. And it does not always bring happiness. Often it brings a great deal of pain, especially when the beloved is suffering and one feels impotent to comfort. It is what life is all about. It is openness and trust and vulnerability.
— Mary Balogh, Then Comes Seduction
That one must either explain life to oneself so that it does not seem to be an evil mockery by some sort of devil, or one must shoot oneself.
— Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Whatever wisdom I have has been hard-earned – each meaning carefully culled out of the dictionary of human experiences and emotions and put in its precise place in the matrix. Meaning doesn’t come easy. The Great Crossword Setter in the Sky is capricious and wilful, demanding absolute obedience. You can waste the better part of a lifetime arguing about the randomness of the clues, the setting of the squares, why a certain square is black and not white as you need it to be, question the whole point of doing the crossword – what, after all, is to be gained by solving it. Only after all the chattering is over and you give your complete attention to it, does the perfection of the pattern reveal itself. As is, where is, everything fits. And at the end, when it’s all done, there is no reward to be had – the joy of doing it right is all the reward there ever is. (A Deepavali Gift)
— Manjul Bajaj, Another Man's Wife and Other Stories
There is a coherent plan to the universe, though I don't know what it's a plan for.
— Fred Hoyle
How are we to spend our lives, anyway? That is the real question. We read to seek the answer, and the search itself--the task of a lifetime--becomes the answer.
— Lynne Sharon Schwartz, Ruined By Reading: A Life in Books
What is the meaning of life?Life has the meaning that you give it.
— Steven Redhead, Keys to Creating Your Reality
There's no sense forcing yourself if you don't feel like it. Tell you the truth, I've had sex with lots of guys, but I think I did it mostly out of fear. I was scared not to have somebody putting his arms around me, so I could never say no. That's all. Nothing good ever came of sex like that. All it does is grind down the meaning of life a piece at a time.
— Haruki Murakami
God makes it all come right in the end, that's what Johnnie told Dock Barker just before we parted company. I was raised a Christian-I admit I fell away a bit along my journey-and I believe that: we're stuck with what we have, but that's all right; in God's eyes, none of us are really much more than flies on strings and all that matters is how much sunshine you can spread along the way.
— Stephen King
I guess that's what saying good-bye is always like--like jumping off an edge. The worst part is making the choice to do it. Once you're in the air, there's nothing you can do but let go.
— Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall
District 12: Where you can starve to death in safety.
— Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
Girl scouts didn't teach me what to do with emotionally unstable drunk boys.
— Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss
Here's one of the things I learned that morning: if you cross a line and nothing happens, the line loses meaning. It's like that old riddle about a tree falling in a forest, and whether it makes a sound if there's no one around to hear it. You keep drawing a line farther and farther away, crossing it every time. That's how people end up stepping off the edge of the earth. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to bust out of orbit, to spin out to a place where no one can touch you. To lose yourself--to get lost. Or maybe you wouldn't be surprised. Maybe some of you already know.To those people, I can only say: I'm sorry.
— Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall
How is it possible, I think, to change so much and not be able to change anything at all?
— Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall
I used to think that's what love was: knowing someone so well he was like a part of you.
— Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall
This is what happens when you try to help people. You get screwed.
— Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall
It's not my fault I can't be like you, okay? I don't get up in the morning thinking the world is one big, shiny, happy place, okay? That's just not how I work. I don't think I can be fixed.
— Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall
Imagine," she said, after registering, "a whole city of gorgeous Italian guys. They can say anything to me, and it'll be sexy." "You'll be so easy," Rashmi said. "Would you like-ah to order-ah the spa-ghe-tti? 'Oh, do me, Marco!
— Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss
And now I realize Lindsay's not fearless. She's terrified. She's terrified that people will find out she's faking, bullshitting her way through life, pretending to have everything together when really she's just floundering like the rest of us. Lindsay, who will bite at you if you even look in her direction the wrong way, like on of those tiny attack dogs that are always barking and snapping in the air before they're jerked backward on the chains that keep them in one place.
— Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall
Mr. Freeman: You are getting better at this, but it's not good enough. This looks like a tree,but it is an average, ordinary, everyday, boring tree. Breathe life into it. Make it bend - trees are flexible, so they don't snap. Scar it, give it a twisted branch - perfect trees don't exist. Nothing is perfect. Flaws are interesting. Be the tree.
— Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
I spent the period reading the first novel assigned for English. And wow. If I hadn't realized I was in France yet, I do now. Because Like Water for Chocolate has sex in it. LOTS of sex.
— Stephanie Perkins, Anna and the French Kiss
But a shift has occurred since I stepped up to take Prim’s place, and now it seems I have become someone precious. At first one, then another, then almost every member of the crowd touches the three middle fingers of their left hand to their lips and holds it out to me. It is an old and rarely used gesture of our district, occasionally seen at funerals. It means thanks, it means admiration, it means good-bye to someone you love.
— Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
No, Kramisha, he's not black. He's a killer bird with evil for his Daddy.
— P.C. Cast, Burned
How would you like to star in your very own commercial?""I'd rather swim in battery acid.
— Robin Benway, Audrey, Wait!
My mother always said that I was born out of a bottle of vinegar instead of born from a womb and that she and my father bathed me in sugar for three days to wash it off. I try to behave, but I always go back to the vinegar.
— Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races
I was too proud to show him how hurt I was.
— Kate le Vann, Things I Know About Love
Nick‘s eyes widened as a total state of befuddled huh possessed him. Was he in theTwilight Zone?
— Sherrilyn Kenyon, Invincible
My little sister, Prim, curled up on her side, cocooned in my mother’s body, their cheeks pressed together. In sleep, my mother looks younger, still worn but not so beaten-down. Prim’s face is as fresh as a raindrop, as lovely as the primrose for which she was named. My mother was very beautiful once, too. Or so they tell me.
— Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
This one is for our crew, but it’s also for all the weird girls and word nerds, for all the in-the-middle wickeds and queers and misfits and hell-raisers.
— Laura Goode, Sister Mischief
Only where children gatheris there any real chance of fun.
— Mignon McLaughlin
When our eyes made contact it was like being slapped, I just wanted to recoil
— Kate le Vann, Things I Know About Love
For a moment, I’m captivated. He’s seducing me with his eyes. A nervous flutter swims through my stomach. I can feel my heartbeat in my throat. Pounding. Constricting. I swallow hard.
— Lauren Hammond, A Whisper To A Scream
About the library," he whispered. He took out the pencil stub from his pocket and poised it over the page."Will you write like Mr. Blake or like yourself?" I inquired.He wrote and whispered the words aloud as he did. "I am in the library. It smells like old stuff.""It smells familiar," I suggested. "It smells like words." Because his left side was to me, I couldn't easily take his hand to write."Books are boring," James said as he wrote."They line the walls like a thousand leather doorways to be opened into worlds unknown," I offered.He thought about this and then wrote with a smile, "I hate books.
— Laura Whitcomb, A Certain Slant of Light
I have never been reduced to begging somebody to leave me alone, but in your case I’ll make an exception.
— Tom Upton, Vanished
I work in a restaurant in an airport in Taiwan. I am eighteen years old and I don’t like my job because everyone gets on planes and leaves. And I want to leave too.
— Kerem Mermutlu, My Last Summer
Angelica rolled the wedding band between her finger and thumb. "It's terrifying, to be on the verge of finally getting what you want.
— Y.S. Lee
Our tragedy is that we forget it might be someone else first.
— Holly Black, Black Heart
How quickly we damn ourselves when we start to talk, how small and inglorious we always sound.
— Curtis Sittenfeld
Yes I am dark, but my eyes are full of stars.
— Bella  James, The Girl Who Cried Wolf
You make obstacle courses and hurricanes, I make T-shirt slogans.
— Kimberly Sabatini
Maybe I’m stupid. Maybe I’m just as evil as he is by keeping my mouth shut. But he told me once that I was different. And I can’t help but hope that me being different is the one thing in this world that can save him from what he fears the most…Himself.
— Lauren Hammond, A Whisper To A Scream
I had good intentions once upon a time. Well, September.
— Claire Hennessy, Big Picture
Writing is easy, its marketing that is truly hell!
— L.A. Jones
Sit on the truth too long and you mash the life right out of it.
— Margaret McMullan, Sources of Light
I don’t know if it was just me making things up in my head but after the fear in their eyes had gone what replaced it was like a sad kind of wondering. A wondering of where the old me was hiding. A wondering about where the old me had gone to. It was like I had suddenly been taken over by someone else and they could see the old me had fallen away for good.
— Kerem Mermutlu, My Last Summer
I knew that she couldn’t hear me if she was there. But the sound was enough to grab me, to hold me to hope, and with desperation that I’d never known before I knew that I must find my way back to her.
— Shawn Kirsten Maravel, Severance
Hip-hop is a reflection of your surroundings and an instrument of change. - Esme from Sister Mischief
— Laura Goode, Sister Mischief
Something else you should really know about me. When I get nervous, my fingers shake. I’ve noticed this a lot recently. When mother and father argue and their voices are falling around the small family apartment, when their voices are banging against my bedroom door, I can feel my fingers start to move. I tell my fingers to stop and, sometimes, they do. But if I look at my hands closely, once I’ve told them to stop, and I try to focus on keeping them as still as possible, I notice that they are still moving.
— Kerem Mermutlu, My Last Summer
I remember when I was twenty-five,â€� he said. â€œNo client comes to you when youâ€™re twenty-five. Itâ€™s like when you are looking for a doctor. You donâ€™t want the new one that just graduated. You donâ€™t want the very old one, the one shaking, the one twenty years past his prime. You want the seasoned one who has done it so many times he can do it in his sleep though. Same thing with attorneys.
— Daniel Amory, Minor Snobs
Just try it,â€� he murmurs, reaching over to cover my hand gently.And I think, Whoa, thatâ€™s never happened before!Then: Is he just doing that because he thinks Wyatt is interested?And, finally, this: Who the hell cares?!
— Rusty Fischer, Ushers, Inc.
I'm too old to be ignorant as I am." --Twelve-year-old Gabriella to the general, who does not want her to know about Emmett Till and the world's brutality.
— Elle Thornton, The Girl Who Swam to Atlantis
I know some words floated through my ears, but my mind refused to absorb their meaning. I just shook my head slowly as the wall of pain washed over me, leaving me submerged and broken in the flood.
— Leslie Deaton, A Marked Past
Hurry up, he'll be coming back pretty soon!"Lynda spelled with a "y" Corgill, who was two years behind Dara, Mackenzie, and Jennifer, and had just completed her sophomore year, squeezed the hot glue gun into the door lock of the headmaster's office. Shelby Andrews, her accomplice and the newest resident to be accepted at Wood Rose, stood watch."I see the lights of the truck. Hurry! He's coming back! Are you finished?"Lynda gave the metal apparatus one last squeeze, filling the lock with the quick-drying cement glue guaranteed to harden on contact. "Finished."In the soft illumination of the crescent moon high overhead, the two girls, barefooted and wearing dark blue pajamas, ran across the lawn crisscrossed by dark, elongated shadows and dampened by night-cooled air to the maintenance shed where they placed the glue gun on the top shelf where it was normally kept. With their task completed, they quickly returned to the dormitory, to the far end from where Ms. Larkins slept, and crawled through the open window. Within minutes they were back in their rooms, in their individual beds, and sound asleep. The sleep of innocent angels.It would soon be light; and Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy for Young Women would start another day.
— Barbara Casey, The Cadence of Gypsies
Carolina removed an old and creased single sheet of paper, yellowed with age, that was now carefully protected in clear, acid-free paper. She handed it to Dara. "This was folded up in a parik-til, in the box with my birth certificate.""A parik-til?" asked Jennifer."It is a small pouch that is filled with things to bring good luck or blessings." She held up the cloth bag and opened it for the girls to see. "Gypsies use them, but so do Native Americans as well as people from Central and South America and other parts of the world. When I got it, I had no idea what it was or what it meant. I knew the folded piece of paper was old and somehow had to be important to me since my birth parents had included it with the other things they wanted me to have." Carolina stood up and walked over to the window. How well she remembered the overwhelming emotions she felt when she first saw those pages of the Voynich Manuscript in the book she was reading, and then realizing that the ancient script was the same as what was on the piece of paper that had been preserved in the parik-til--her parik-til. "Anyway, as soon as I saw the photographs of some of the manuscript pages in the book I was reading, I made the connection immediately. It was the same script as what was on this sheet of paper that I had been given."All three FIGS crowded closely together to look at Carolina's treasure.
— Barbara Casey, The Cadence of Gypsies
Without saying anything, Dara gathered her pillow and one of the soft comforters from her bed and carried it into Carolina's room. Mackenzie and Jennifer followed her. They would sleep in her room that night, keeping the ice packs around her, adjusting the fan. One by one they fixed their make-shift beds on the floor, close to each other, and close to Carolina.
— Barbara Casey, The Cadence of Gypsies
Jennifer now understood the meaning of the cadence: the black and white drawing, the watercolor painting,and the notes. The cadence had at last developed into a concerto for violin, the instrument of gypsies, with a prevailing rhapsodic "leitmotif". The final movement had revealed itself when they were at the gypsy camp. And now it was complete.
— Barbara Casey, The Cadence of Gypsies
Iâ€™ve lived for nothing and might soon die for less. My Life, Part One will be cancelled midway through the first season
— R.S. Gompertz, Life's Big Zoo
My station has barely recovered from the massacre, and we have not held my formal coronation, not to mention the fact I am only eighteen years of age and have no parent present. How on earth do people expect me to find a husband in all of this nonsense?
— Courtney Brandt, The Queen of England: Coronation
I took care of the next guy in line while I checked out the girl who was boxing up a pecan pie and decorating it with some sort of fancy ribbon. Watching her wouldnâ€™t be a hardship. She made the retro waitress uniform look good. If she looked as good from the front as she did from the back, maybe I would ask her out.She turned around and handed the box to the customer at the counter and my world turned sideways. It was Delia. My little sisterâ€™s annoying best friend. The girl who was practically a member of my family. When had she become hot? I blinked, hoping maybe Iâ€™d seen wrong. Nope. Same blonde hair with hot pink stripes, which Iâ€™d always thought was stupid. Now, wearing the Pie Princess tiara and some sort of glittery lip gloss she looked wild and kind of sexy. And that was just wrong.
— Chris  Cannon, Boomerang Boyfriend
Because what was the point in crying when there was no one there to comfort you? And what was worse, when you couldn't even comfort yourself?
— Cassandra Clare, City of Glass
Most people ignore what's right before their eyes. They believe they see, but oftentimes only view what they want.
— Kerri Maniscalco, Stalking Jack the Ripper
Chance dug deep into the dirt, his front end rising like a speed boat accelerating through water. I grabbed the saddle horn, surprised by his enthusiasm, but I was just as anxious to run as he was. I gave him the reins to go.
— Brittney Joy, Showdown
It was your personality that consumed me. You became my favorite. My favorite of them all…
— Jennifer Renson, Carousel
But, I still can't totally forgive Dave for blowing my world apart. DO YOU HEAR THAT, DAVE?!
— K.M. Shea, My Life at the M.B.R.C.
Shut up, lumpen-head,” Billy had said, setting the stage for our future amicable relationship.  I remembered that very well too. That had been a first too. Nobody had called me a lumpen-head before that. Tavi had had to explain what it meant, and then I had punched Billy in the stomach. People had to help Pradyun separate us and one of the ladies had exclaimed, “But she looked like such a sweet, little girl too!” “She's not a girl,” Billy had said. “She's an ugly lumpen-head, and her parents found her under a toadstool.” Billy had been a sweet, little boy himself. Still was. Hadn't changed a bit over the years.
— Sonal Panse, The Sunshine Time: Season 1 Episode 3
We’ve been trapped in here, away from civilisation. We’re wasting our lives away, waiting for something. But nothing’s happened, and nothing is going to happen unless we help ourselves.
— Jasmine Morrison
But mostly I just think I'am not the best person to demonstrate all the goodness humanity has to offer. I don't want you to be too disappointed when you realize that.
— Marissa Meyer, Cress
Adam mused, “Incorruptus. I never thought anyone would use that word to describe Lynch.” Ronan looked as pleased as a pit viper ever could.
— Maggie Stiefvater, Blue Lily, Lily Blue
It's the broken that find a way, because the cracks, although deep, let out as much light as the darkness they let in
— Tom Kavanagh, Re:Help
She’s a mixed-breed and not the least bit aggressive.She decided long ago she wanted to be a pet dog, not a guard dog. I think that’s another reason why that man wanted to get rid of her. I’ve never understood all this fascination with aggressiveness. It’s like an epidemic. People don’t just want aggressive dogs, they want to be aggressive themselves.
— Sonal Panse, The Sunshine Time - Season 1 Episode 1
She’s a mixed-breed and not the least bit aggressive. She decided long ago she wanted to be a pet dog, not a guard dog. I think that’s another reason why that man wanted to get rid of her. I’ve never understood all this fascination with aggressiveness. It’s like an epidemic. People don’t just want aggressive dogs, they want to be aggressive themselves.
— Sonal Panse, The Sunshine Time - Season 1 Episode 1
It had been a big mistake, introducing her to Tavi on one of his visits home. She had fallen hard and made up every conceivable excuse to turn up at our place that week. Tavi had taken it in his usual stride; he was accustomed to my friends making idiots of themselves over him and he had developed a fine knack of rebuffing them without hurting their feelings too much. “You deserve a Prince,” he had told her. “So here's a tip – don't waste your time on a common man like me.
— Sonal Panse, The Sunshine Time: Season 1 Episode 3
Sometimes you need to loose in order to win.
— Adele          Rose, Possession
Robin Hood or my Robyn Hood - a legendary character known throughout the world. Why? Essentially the character is on the side of the poor, the oppressed, those who live in a society with very limited recourse to justice. Hence the attraction of an heroic figure who identifies with the poor and the needy and has the courage and ability to solve the problems. Often at the point of an arrow or sword? Why not. That gives the hero character an adventurous dimension to their actions.
— John  Reynolds, Robyn Hood: Outlaw Princess
Pain comes with the decision of choosing what I have to offer now, but this same pain is needed to shape you for the greater destiny ahead.
— J.D. Netto, The Whispers of the Fallen
But always remember, I am watching your every move and will be with all of you until the end of all things. Do not let your heart be troubled with the turmoil of the future. Be sure of one thing: the future is already written in the hidden stones of the hearts of those who said ‘yes.
— J.D. Netto, The Whispers of the Fallen
Our trust goes beyond the darkness.
— J.D. Netto, The Whispers of the Fallen
Words aren't good enough for a lot of things, but we have to try.
— Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead
One can't step into the river twice
— Ann Howard Creel, Call Me the Canyon: A Love Story
My ultimate authority would be the school librarian Mrs. Greenbacher.
— Shawn Stewart Ruff, Finlater
I can’t decide if Burt and Crazel are made for each other or if their joint mentalism could cause a tsunami.”Tea – Book 2 “Having it
— Jamie Scallion, Having It
They just want to be part of the moment. A moment that's much larger than them, and even larger than us.
— Goldy Moldavsky, Kill the Boy Band
Feeble human body, hey?” Mikael said it in the way that he had, that made everything sound slightly naughty and sexual. I aimed three quick jabs at his head, which wiped the innuendo off his face.
— Melanie Cusick-Jones, Cirque de la Nuit
Teachers influence more by what they are, what they do, what they represent and what they believe than by what they teach and preach.
— Kavita Bhupta Ghosh, Wanted Back-Bencher and Last-Ranker Teacher
Why are you surprised when the thing you run from as hard as you can only gets faster and better at chasing you ...
— Tiffany FitzHenry, The Oldest Soul - Animus
Well, it’s probably a good thing Anubis didn’t kiss me. I would have died all over again.
— Kate Rooper, Jane Unwrapped
Do you really think that Tutankhamen would have taken a chance on some pale girl with pretty eyes had you not been the priestess of Anubis?”“You did.” The words fall out of me.“What?”I look up at him. “You took a chance on me.” I sit up, breath heavy in my throat. “When I was nothing but a dead, lost thing.
— Leah Rooper, Jane Unwrapped
I bet if I were pharaoh, I’d have had my tomb planned and designed by the time I was ten. I've always wanted to be five steps ahead of where I am. And my mind does it right now: I picture the king on his deathbed, and Ay delivers the awful news to me, but I'm the best embalmer in Thebes thanks to Anubis, so I'm alone in a dark room, and I cut open his soft chest, and take out a heart filled with dreams and love and sadness.
— Leah Rooper, Jane Unwrapped
His lips are soft and crushing at the same time. I’m not sure what to do—is there an algorithm for kissing?
— Kate Rooper, Jane Unwrapped
She wants me. And I am terrified, knowing how much I want her back.
— Leah Rooper, Jane Unwrapped
From beneath the folds of his robes, he reveals a small steel dagger. “You have tempted fate so many times already and still yield to it. Time for history to rewrite itself. Time for Tutankhamen to have a new ending.” Aten holds the hilt out to me.I stare at the dagger. The hilt is bronze, carved with sun discs that glow when they catch the sun. “What do you want me to do with that?”Aten smiles a white, gaping grin. “Kill Tutankhamen and carve out his heart.
— Kate Rooper, Jane Unwrapped
Experiment: Live and love as much as I can, before my particles fall away to wander in stardust.
— Leah Rooper, Jane Unwrapped
Ahhh." Anubis narrows his eyes at me. “I’ve given you inspiration. Now you’re thinking about bringing the lightbulb to ancient Egypt. It would be a hit––all those dark tombs.”You. I was thinking about you. His eyebrows rise. “Huh? Me?”Fluorine uranium carbon potassium. I said that out loud. "I mean," I stutter, "I was thinking about…unimolecular reactions.
— Kate Rooper, Jane Unwrapped
(Every great character, Iz, be it on page or screen, is multidimensional. The good guys aren't all good, and the bad guys aren't all bad, and any character wholly one or the other shouldn't exist at all. Remember this when I describe the antics that follow, for though I am not a villain, I am not immune to villainy.)
— David Arnold
He stares blankly, then leaves the room like a ghost—never truly here. I gaze at the doorway. I do not know if he means for me to follow him. It’s a choice then.And I realize that this is no choice at all, but rather a sentence. By love or by evil, somehow I am bound to Tutankhamen. It’s not a choice any more if I will follow him, but a question of what I will do when I catch him.
— Kate Rooper, Jane Unwrapped
I could have killed you,” I snarl.“You think you can become a god. You always meddle and change and create. No, that is not the way. What is shall always be. What is known shall always stand.”“Then you’ve never been in a laboratory!
— Kate Rooper, Jane Unwrapped
My eyes open and close. I catch a quick glimpse of the people in the room and hear a fading echo from the heart monitor. As I think about my past, remorse bleed into the crevices of my torn heart. Since I’m in this hospital, I might as well prepare for my departure. I like the way that word sounds, it gives off the illusion of a specific journey that an individual is about to take.
— T.K. Ware, If I Could: A Son's Plea
If I wasn't discovering something, if I wasn't studying, well then, what was I doing? I know I wouldn’t be happy unless I made a difference. So what was the happiness of a moment worth against the happiness of my life?" I let out a breathy laugh and squeeze his hand. "I guess it doesn't matter now.” I stare out over camp, but a glassy sadness blurs my vision. “Have you ever wanted something so much that everything else in the world seemed so small?"He tilts his head toward me, narrowing his eyes. "I'm beginning to.
— Leah Rooper
And whose heart do you want me to steal?” The words escape me in a whisper.A small smile pricks Aten’s lips. “King Tutankhamen.
— Leah Rooper, Jane Unwrapped
You are the Worst Kind of Animal. A Butcher by Day and a Pussy Cat by Night.
— Monroe Ariel, Her OutSpoken Lips: A Collection of Poems Through the Eyes of a Woman Pushed to the Edge Part II
It’s too dangerous…I would never be able to forgive myself if something happened to him. I wouldn’t be able to bare it. Forgiveness would be out of the question
—  beyond my ability. I would never be able to forget that the boy I loved was hurt…or worse…because he came to this world. Because of me.
Ari's words felt like drops of sunlight upon my skin, and my frame was burning with longing.
— Petra March
I want to go home.”“Impossible. You’re here now.”“But why?”“Jane Ezrael,” Anubis says, “you’re dead.
— Kate Rooper, Jane Unwrapped
It was while bent over, trying to breathe through the pain of bruised ribs, with the sensation of spit running down his cheek that Jason decided he was going to die.
— Paul W.S. Bowler, Blue Eyeshadow
You are the Worst Kind of Animal.A Butcher By Day and a Pussy cat By Night.
— Monroe Ariel, Her OutSpoken Lips: A Collection of Poems Through the Eyes of a Woman Pushed to the Edge Part II
Where there is light, there is a way out of the darkness
— Ashley Earley, The Darkest Light
The time is always now to declare your freedom!"..."The Authority says that Anarchy is the devil. But I say that a man who's both an anarchist and a patriot has been ordained by God himself!
— Logan Keys
There are ultimate truths you cannot hide from no matter how high you climb or how long you sit alone. Everything is on its way somewhere, even if that place feels like nowhere.
— LeighLa Graham, Lessons in Saving a Girl
Pain is an old friend who left briefly and has now returned. Starvation without sustenance, I had grown acquaint. Satiety was a stranger who invaded my deepest being, and now I cannot live without.
— Melanie A. Gabbard, The Tome of Knowledge
Flanked by his personal guardsmen, Emperor Gevalen walked toward me, never letting go of me with his eyes. It was thrilling and terrifying all at once.
— Julie B.  Campbell, Love at First Plight
Ultimately, the universe doesn't care about us. Time doesn't care about us. That's why we have to care about each other.
— David Levithan, Every Day
He had something in him, how he walked, how he carried himself with that carelessness, he wasn’t my type entirely, if I ever had a type of guy before him.
— Sela Ordaz, The One That Got Away
At times it's like sadness has planted itself on her face, refusing to leave, an overwhelming sadness, and sometimes I see despair there, too.
— Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road
Curiosity was getting the better of me.
— Amanda Giasson, Love at First Plight
The land will sink into the water, and then, the water will evaporate into the air, taking the sky with it. And all, but a tremor of what once was, will be gone. ~ Ichabod Everward, during the Fossil War.
— Ryan Mark, Tremor
The land will sink into the water, and then, the water will evaporate into the air, taking the sky with it. And all, but a tremor of what once was, will be gone." ~ Ichabod Everward, during the Fossil War.
— Ryan Mark
I was a wildflower that would continue to grow in the most unexpected weather.
— Taisha DeAza, Frail
There was no point in the gods trying to separate us. Whether we were on Earth or in hell, we'd spend the rest our days look for the other.
— Taisha DeAza, Frail
There is no good or evil here, it all depends on what side you're standing. Nor is it about wrong or right, it's about surviving." Triven
— Jennifer   Wilson, New World: Rising
Love is blind; people aren't.Chubby Chaser, 11/21/14
— Kahoko Yamada
If we keep punishing people for what their parents or their ancestors have done, the world as a whole can never move forward. Society will never grow.” -Triven
— Jennifer   Wilson, New World: Rising
All our good and bad memories—they were like our B-side diaries. They were like those songs on old dusty punk albums that no one listened to anymore.
— Brian Joyce
I want to tell you that I love you,” he said. “But I’m afraid you won’t remember it tomorrow.”“There’s no way I would forget that.
— Megan Duke, Ninety Degrees: A Precursor to Small Circles
I'm beginning to think that if you're going to have a role model you should probably pick someone who's already dead so they can't disappoint you.
— Dyan Sheldon, Planet Janet
The dusty library air is electric with secrets/ almost palpable in the thick quiet that bounces between/ Cal and those books and me
— Stasia Ward Kehoe, The Sound of Letting Go
Be proud of who you are.
— Caroline Greyling, Five
I'm going to turn my life around. Make a complete three sixty.""Don't you mean one eighty?" he corrected. "If you do that, you'll end up right back where you started.""Maybe. But at least I'll have a chance of coming out of it a different person - a better version of me.
— Megan Duke, Three Sixty: A Companion to Small Circles
We as humans are the patterns of life. We are the roads we travel. Our lives make up the insignificance of a moment of the importance of a second. The choices we make are everything. I realize that, now that everything has changed and I'm a different person.
— Megan Duke, Because of Him
She might have been there for you in the aftermath, but I was there when everything came crashing down.
— Megan Duke, Three Sixty: A Companion to Small Circles
She ran from the shame, slammed his door behind her and ran, away from the pain and the moment when he had been so close to her mouth he could have kissed her, the thought that made her feel like her heart would burst.
— Laure Eve, Fearsome Dreamer
If the love is true, it will wait until the dream becomes a reality. True love also gives strength to a dream.
— Lorraine Koh, Pop Rock Love
Hey, Mrs. Jakes, how come people can’t afford new shoes or food, but they can still buy candy?” She smiled and waved him off. “Oh, people will always find a way to buy chocolate, Elliot. Chocolate is forever.
— Jack C. Monroe, A Hole In Time: An Elliot James Adventure
MISSION ONE ACCOMPLISHED. The next challenge was bringing in online gamers to join him on his crusade. How was he going to convince online gamers to leave the privacy of their virtual world to work with others in the real world?--Harry Doubt
— Anne-Rae Vasquez, Doubt
Black snowflakes creep down from the sky, advancing slowly, methodically. All the money in the world, which my father seems to have, can’t keep the demons from chasing me ⎯ Aishling Morrighan Delaney, a.k.a. princess of Clan Delaney. Everything is messed up. I’m wearing the “Happy Birthday” sash across my chest that my best friend, Claire, had always insisted I wear for my special day, but this is not that day. My twentieth birthday was over a month ago, on October 31, the night of Samhain, the Celtic New Year’s Eve.This is December 7th, and the Ten Colds Moon is rising. My fate stalks me. Doesn’t look like I’m going to make it to my belated birthday party. I lean into my horse, Kheelan, as he tears across the bracken and bramble moor, and beyond through the amethyst fields of devil’s bit, for a moment outrunning the faerie’s freak show. The spiky shrubs of the moor bite my legs as we attempt to outrun the Fates and the black snow that comes like a gathering sandstorm, trailing me. This princess thing in Ireland can get a girl killed fast, or maybe it’s just me. I am the faerie slayer of the seventh order and the 28th generation, the prophesied Gael Siridean, the Searcher. As such, my head is crowned with a supernatural bounty, and the price is high…The thread of my life frays rapidly, as does the hem of this black velvet medieval-style dress I borrowed from my best friend, Claire. She’s throwing me a themed party this year. If I make it out of this alive tonight, she’s going to kill me for ruining her dress and causing her more worry. Maybe she’ll grant me mercy when she takes in my drenched, haggard appearance with thistle strewn throughout my hair and dark eyeliner no doubt leaving claw marks down my cheeks. I can’t tell her what really happened here tonight. I can’t tell anyone.
— Joy Stephens
He was drop-dead gorgeous and I, well I was just ... dead." (Tera Hightower, Dead Chick Walking)
— Ace Antonio Hall
Congratulations," she said. "You win.
— Megan Duke, Three Sixty: A Companion to Small Circles
That narrows down the search quite a bit,” Daniel commented. “But what if you still don’t find her?”“Then I’m still not going to join the throng of mindless dicks out there looking for a dizney-whore to take advantage of.” Will was frowning but Daniel laughed explosively through his nose.“I can’t believe you just said that!
— Rebekah Joy Anast, Holy Cow
I find it rather depressing that the people you love most in this world can also be the same exact people you hate with fervor. But it can happen, trust me.It was the f***ing story of my life.
— Christina Channelle, Those Four Letter Words
I have this idea stuck in my head that you have to be born beautiful in order to dream beautiful things. God didn't write beautiful on my heart. I'm stuck with all my bad dreams. Bad dreams for bad boys. I guess that's the way it is for me. Look, there's nothing I can do about it.
— Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Last Night I Sang to the Monster
Christy isn’t a case, he’s a person.
— C. Kennedy, Ómorphi
Because you’re beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence.
— John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
No,” Scott’s voice cracked, “Carrie look at me.” Carrie bit down on her lip and tried to focus on the healing process. The usual sensation of the energy flowing through her finger tips was a weak haze and it completely disappeared when Scott whispered, defeated, “Carrie, please.
— Julia Barkey
This girl, this impossibly sweet girl, was his present and his future, despite his past. Fate had to be smiling at him. He couldn't imagine life without this dark haired beauty. Those beautiful hazel eyes reached into his heart and took hold.
— Shayna Varadeaux, True Fate
That was when I realised a sad but incontrovertible truth: I was a geek, and there was no getting around it. I could dress in Kate’s clothes, but it didn’t make me Kate.
— Sharon Sant
Reading is fuel for the brain. Writing is fuel for the spirit...
— Megan S. Johnston, Transition
All you need is one thought and one word. When you learn how to connect them, you can do anything you like.
— Jennifer Loiske, Black Diamond
…the primary trait of young adult literature is that the author’s emphasis is on plot and character and not on his own brilliance. And because few people talk about whether a young adult work is commercial or literary; the two are still in sync, and everyone’s benefitting.
— Eliot Schrefer
I could’ve gone on and on but the truth was all that mattered. “My brother died because someone was jealous.
— Laura Anderson Kurk, Glass Girl
Finally, her father spoke. “Are you sure? I mean, I don’t understand how this could have happened. She’s only fifteen; I didn’t even know she was sexually active.” Mallory’s father, normally in control, was on the verge of tears. He refused to look at his daughter, his little girl. As much as he had preached abstinence to her, he still kept a watchful eye over her, yet here they were, facing the unthinkable. He wanted to know when this happened, and with whom—but those questions would have to wait.
— Tracy L. Darity, The Red Bear Society
Here was what I wanted to happen when I walked through the door after my first real date and my first ever kiss. I wanted my mom to say, “Dear God, Meg, you’re glowing. Sit and tell me about this boy. He let you borrow his jacket? That’s so adorable.” Instead, I came off the high of that day by writing a letter to my dead brother and doing yoga between my twin beds, trying to forget my absent mother.
— Laura Anderson Kurk, Glass Girl
The embrace was long and tight, but more like a complex language then a simple prolonged act. She said nothing at all, but damn she said everything. And I finally got it.
— Pierce Minor, Twistir
There’s always time for arguin’ when you’re a Fuentes.
— Simone Elkeles, Chain Reaction
The percentage of couples who stay together after high school is, like, less than five percent, you guys.
— Simone Elkeles, Chain Reaction
What are you boys doing?” she asks, as if we’re still little kids messing around.“Arguin’,” Carlos says matter-of-factly.
— Simone Elkeles, Chain Reaction
Carlos, are we in complete understanding with each other?”“Yeah,” I say. “As long as it’s not in your house and you don’t know about it, you’re okay with us messin’ around.”“I know you’re joking with me. You are joking with me, aren’t you?”“Maybe.
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
There is a part of me that no one ever sees.I hide behind a mask of heavy make-up and ever-changing hair and clothing. I try to reinvent myself. It doesn’t work. There are times when I am bone-crushingly sad. I just want to curl into a ball and hide from the rest of the world. But, I plaster on a smile and play the game for my family and friends. They call me a free spirit.I wish I were free. I feel like I am imprisoned by my own mind.
— Julia Crane, Anna
Ben walks in the room and asks, “What were you guys doing?” Nikki says “Nothing” at the same time I say, “Your sister and I were just makin’ out.
— Simone Elkeles, Chain Reaction
I have trust issues.”“I know. I’m on a mission to cure you of that.
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
Sylvia grabs my sleeve. “He’s a looker.”“I know. The problem is, he knows it, too.
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
I have to protect you,” he says softly.
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
Listen, I don’t know what the hell happened between you and Marco. To be honest I don’t really want to know, ’cause if I did I’d probably want to kick the shit outta him.”“I don’t need you to protect me.”“What if I want to?
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
I’ll always love you, no matter what happens, okay?
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
A text pops up on the screen. It’s from Luis. I can’t help but grin when I read his perfectly thought-out me
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
Her heart fluttered. It had only been a few hours, but it felt like a lifetime since she saw him last. She seriously felt addicted to that boy.
— Julia Crane, Lauren
You look like a hot tamale.”“That’s not really a compliment.
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
What’s with all those tattoos? Makes you look like a hooligan.”“I suspect I am a hooligan.
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
Keegan felt nervous as Rourk walked toward her. What should she say? In an instant, he stood in front of her. She felt his fingers trace the side of her face. She looked up into his grey eyes as he leaned down and kissed her.Keegan had kissed boys before, but she’d never felt anything like this.
— Julia Crane, Keegan's Chronicles Trilogy Set
The stars twinkled above him brilliantly, representing all of the beautiful laws of the universe.
— Keira D. Skye
He looked steadily in my eyes, and held my hand affectionally. “Narissa, let me take you away to a world that you have never known to exist.
— Keira D. Skye
cause if you were my girlfriend and a stud like me was livin’ in your house, I’d kiss you in front of the guy every chance I got as a reminder.
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
Nikki looks at me, confused. “What’s wro
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
But it hadn't just been Sebastian who had been watching me. Rather, it had been tribes of merman and mermaids, who had been curious about this newcomer in town that could outswim any school of small fish.
— Keira D. Skye
This angered me. “Nothing has changed!?!?” I screamed at him. I was furious with him. He had duped me. “Your a mermaid! Your a freak!” Calling him a freak hurt his feelings. “I am the same boy you fell in love with. I can't help who I was born as, but that doesn't affect the boy in which I want to be.”“And what is that?” I asked, really emotional right now. “A boy who wants to be given the chance to love you.” With these tender words, I instantly ran into his arms. “Oh Trysten, I don't care who you are, or what you can become, but I love you for loving me.
— Keira D. Skye
I’ve known her long enough to know that this was purely intentional.” He peered sideways at me, judging my reaction. “I like her just fine, but you should watch yourself around her. Tennyson is given to obsession, and her obsessions tend to run toward trouble. It’s kind of a Wyoming thing to push the whole ‘Wild West’ routine to its limits.
— Laura Anderson Kurk, Glass Girl
I’m not going anywhere until you hear me out.”Oh, please no. Anything except having to listen to her lecture. I push the button that calls the 
— Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry
Is that your cheap way of telling me you want to kiss 
— Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry
When she wraps her arms around my neck, all I want to do is protect this girl for the rest of my life.
— Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry
I realise it’s going to happen. This girl of my dreams, this girl who is more like me than anyone I’ve ever met, wants to kiss me.
— Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry
You were lookin’ at me like you wanted to kiss me.”I force a laugh. “Yeah, right,” I say sarcastically.“Nobody’s watchin’ if you want to, you know, try it. Not to brag, but I’m somewhat of an expert.
— Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry
You can’t keep her.”I know that. But I’m not ready to give her up just yet.
— Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry
She ignores me, so I cup my hands over my mouth and do something I haven’t done in years— barnyard sounds.
— Simone Elkeles, Chain Reaction
Thoughts of being a pirate and stealing her away to my ship race across my mind. Although I’m not a pirate, and she’s not my captured princess.
— Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry
Don’t try and make me feel better, Alex. I hate you.”“I hate you, too.
— Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry
Luis is right there.” I point to the corner of the yard, where my little brother is the centre of attention doing imitations of barnyard animals. I have yet to inform him that talent isn’t as much of a chick magnet when you get into junior high.
— Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry
Whoa, who was that?”“Madison Stone,” Kiara mutters.“Introduce me to her.”“Why?”Because I know it’ll annoy the shit out of you.
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction
I like that girl more than I can remember likin’ anything in my life. I’m not about to give her up. I’ll start carin’ about what other people think when I’m six feet under.
— Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be a dickhead. Well, I did.
— Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry
Three things Marco taught me today race through my mind: boys will lie to your face just to have sex with you, don’t trust any boy who says I love you, and never date a boy who lives on the south side of Fairfield.
— Simone Elkeles, Chain Reaction
Listen, I didn’t ask for a face and body girls find attractive. But thanks to the mixture of my parents’ DNA, I’ve got them, and I’m not ashamed to use ’em.
— Simone Elkeles, Rules of Attraction