Adam smiled cheerily. Ronan would start wars and burn cities for that true smile, elastic and amiable. - Maggie Stiefvater, The Raven King

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other. - Jane Austen, Emma

If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden. - Claudia Adrienne Grandi

Great acts are made up of small deeds. - Lao Tzu

sometimes you don't need a goal in life, you don't need to know the big picture. you just need to know what you're going to do next! - Sophie Kinsella, The Undomestic Goddess

And by golly, love sure was a battlefield. Benatar was right about that. - Charlaine Harris, Club Dead

We have normality. I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem. - Douglas Adams

The role played by time at the beginning of the universe is, I believe, the final key to removing the need for a Grand Designer, and revealing how the universe created itself. … Time itself must come to a stop. You can’t get to a time before the big bang, because there was no time before the big bang. We have finally found something that does not have a cause because there was no time for a cause to exist in. For me this means there is no possibility of a creator because there is no time for a creator to have existed. Since time itself began at the moment of the Big Bang, it was an event that could not have been caused or created by anyone or anything. … So when people ask me if a god created the universe, I tell them the question itself makes no sense. Time didn’t exist before the Big Bang, so there is no time for God to make the universe in. It’s like asking for directions to the edge of the Earth. The Earth is a sphere. It does not have an edge, so looking for it is a futile exercise. - Stephen Hawking

I’ve met a man and fallen in love with him. I allowed myself to fall in love for one simple reason: I’m not expecting anything to come of it. I know that, in three months’ time, I’ll be far away and he’ll be just a memory, but I couldn’t stand living without love any longer; I had reached my limit… Generally speaking, these meetings occur when we reach a limit, when we need to die and be reborn emotionally. These meeting are waiting for us, but more often than not, we avoid them happening. If we are desperate, though, if we have nothing to lose, or if we are full of enthusiasm for life, then the unknown reveals itself, and our universe changes directions. - Paulo Coelho, Eleven Minutes

People took such awful chances with chemicals and their bodies because they wanted the quality of their lives to improve. They lived in ugly places where there were only ugly things to do. They didn't own doodley-squat, so they couldn't improve their surroundings. so they did their best to make their insides beautiful instead. - Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Breakfast of Champions

Almost everything strange washes up near Miami. - Rick Riordan

In my end is my beginning. - T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

You're a hero and a gentleman, you're kind and honest, but more than that, you're the first man I ever truly loved. And no matter what the future brings, you always will be, and I know that my life is better for it. - Nicholas Sparks, Dear John

What's terrible is to pretend that second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don't need love when you do - or you like your work when you know quite well you're capable of better.

Annabeth pressed her lips to Percy’s ear. “I love you.”She wasn’t sure he could hear her—but if they died, she wanted those to be her last words. - Rick Riordan, The House of Hades

Participate in your dreams today. There are unlimited opportunities available with this new day. Take action on those wonderful dreams you've had in your mind for so long. Remember, success is something you experience when you act accordingly. - Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

Failed relationships can be described as so much wasted make-up. - Marian Keyes, Watermelon

Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind. - Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

I planted a kamikaze kiss on Jamie’s cheek.“FUCK,” he shouted, wiping it off. “What if you killed me!” He threw a Skittle at my face. It hit my forehead.“Ow!”“Taste the rainbow bitch. - Michelle Hodkin, The Retribution of Mara Dyer

Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer. And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must,” then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse. Then come close to Nature. Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose......Describe your sorrows and desires, the thoughts that pass through your mind and your belief in some kind of beauty - describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the Things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember. If your everyday life seems poor, don’t blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is not poverty and no poor, indifferent place. And even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world’s sounds – wouldn’t you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of memories? Turn your attentions to it. Try to raise up the sunken feelings of this enormous past; your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes by, far in the distance. - And if out of this turning-within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it. A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it. - Rainer Maria Rilke