"As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge."

 

Henry Van Dyke

“I’m not looking for someone to save me. Life rafts might keep you afloat but they rarely get you anywhere and I’ve got places I want to go.”

—Andrea Gibson

"I was never happy when I just had myself to do for, or even when I had somebody else wanting to do for me. That was nice, but that wasn’t the main point about loving, at least not with me. The main point was having somebody I could let my feelings out on. And I couldn’t do that very well at a distance, I needed to have somebody right around close, so I could touch them and cook for them and do little things like that."

Larry McMurtry, Leaving Cheyenne

"When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That’s the message he is sending."

 

Thich Nhat Hanh

"Whenever someone who knows you disappears, you lose one version of yourself. Yourself as you were seen, as you were judged to be. Lover or enemy, mother or friend, those who know us construct us, and their several knowings slant the different facets of our characters like diamond-cutter’s tools. Each such loss is a step leading to the grave, where all versions blend and end."

 

Salman Rushdie

"Insects were scurrying about in the shade cast by the grass, and the lawn was a huge monotonous forest of thousands of little green blades, all equal, all alike, hiding the world from each other. Anguished, she thought, “I don’t want to be just another blade of grass."

 

Simone de Beauvoir, All Men Are Mortal

"Don’t allow your wounds to transform you into someone you’re not."

 

Paulo Coelho

"I feel like we’re all here on this planet, and intimacy is important. I can’t bear small talk, it’s awful. I want to get beyond that thing of discussing how the weather is a bit better today than it was yesterday, and how this is a nice restaurant. I want to get to what are the problems, what’s really going on. Are you in love? Are you in a lot of pain? What’s really going on in your life? I’m interested in that area, whether it’s on stage or in real life."

 

Simon Amstell

"Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections. "

"The thing about recovery is it only works for those who want it. "