"I must tell you that I love you, and if I live I will ask for your hand, but you needn't say anything now if it distresses you, and I might rather die without knowing that you don't die without knowing that you don't love me if that's how you feel."
The Two Princesses of Bamarre
by Gail Carson Levine
Sunday, May 31, 2009
"I don't want to stay here without you, he signed. i can't be without you. You are me. We are the same, in our hearts. He stopped, searching for wrods, frustrated and near tears. He went on: I feel...feelings too big, I have no words. If you go away from me, I will lie down and sleep, and not wake up again.
The Raging Quiet
by Sherryl Jordan
The Raging Quiet
by Sherryl Jordan
"For what is not connected with her to me? and what does not recall her? I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped in the flags! Every cloud, every tree - filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day - I am surrounded with her image! The most ordinary foaces of men and women - my own features - mock me with a resemblance. The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!"
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte
"No boy ever looked at me except for homework help. And to tell the truth, I can't say that I care. Kissing looks like too much of somebody ele's dental hygience if you ask me. If you want to see stars - which is what Rachel claims it's all about - then why not just go climb up a tree in the dark?"
The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver
The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver
"And the crazy part of it was that even if you were clever, even if you spent your adolescence reading John Donne and Shaw, even if you studied history or zoology or phsics and hoped to spend your life pursuing some difficult and challenging career - you still had a mind full of all the soupy longings that every high school girl was awash in."
Fear of Flying
by Erica Jong
Fear of Flying
by Erica Jong
"We go to see our favorite local bar band, the Hold Steady, every time they play. They always end with our favorite song, Killer Parties, and sometimes I think, man, all the people I get to hear this song with, we're going to miss each other when we die. When we die, we'll turn into songs, and we will hear each other and remember each other."
Love Is a Mix Tape
by Rob Sheffield
Love Is a Mix Tape
by Rob Sheffield
"You konw what I am going to say. I love you...You could draw me to fire, you could draw me to water, you could draw me to the gallows, you could draw me to any death, you could draw me to anything I have most avoided, you could draw me to any exposure and disgrace...But if you would return a favorable answer to my offer of myself in marriage, you could draw me to any good - every good - with equal force."
Our Mutual Friend
by Charles Dickens
Our Mutual Friend
by Charles Dickens
"Frighten me? Yes, you do frighten me. You act as though we will be together forever. You act as though there is infinite pleasure and time without end. How can I know that? My experience has been that time always ends. In theory you are right, the quantam physicists are right, the romantics and relgious are right. Time without end. In practice we both wear a watch. If I rush at this relationships it's because I fear for it. I fear you have a door I cannot see and that at any minute now the door will open and you'll be gone. Then what? Then what as I bang the walls like the Inquisition searching for a saint? Where will I find the secret passage? For me, it'll just be the same four walls."
Written On the Body
by Jeanette Winterson
Written On the Body
by Jeanette Winterson
"'I thought love would be like the slow movement of the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante...or like one of those uplifting paintings my mother used to take me to look at with putti and clouds and golden rays...or even like the sea. But it isn't, is it?'
'No. Love is like itself.'"
The Morning Gift
by Eva Ibbotson
'No. Love is like itself.'"
The Morning Gift
by Eva Ibbotson
"'I love it so much, this river.'
'I too,' said Quin. 'As a matter of fact I think I might go in for some bottle throwing on my own account. I shall go out tomorrow and buy a thousand lemonade bottles and put a note in each and every one and drop them from the bridge.'
'What will they say ,the notes? What will you put in them?'
He turned his head, surprised at her obtuseness. 'Your name, of course. What else?'"
The Morning Gift
by Eva Ibbotson
'I too,' said Quin. 'As a matter of fact I think I might go in for some bottle throwing on my own account. I shall go out tomorrow and buy a thousand lemonade bottles and put a note in each and every one and drop them from the bridge.'
'What will they say ,the notes? What will you put in them?'
He turned his head, surprised at her obtuseness. 'Your name, of course. What else?'"
The Morning Gift
by Eva Ibbotson
"'You will get me out of your thoughts in a week.'
'Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since i first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen - You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become aquainted with...Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil..."
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
'Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since i first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then. You have been in every prospect I have ever seen - You have been the embodiment of every graceful fancy that my mind has ever become aquainted with...Estella, to the last hour of my life, you cannot choose but remain part of my character, part of the little good in me, part of the evil..."
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
"Half the time you make me want to scream. But the other half? The other half of the time you're kind of...nice to be around. It's sort of...fun. More than fun. It's comfortable. Comforting. How can you make me want to scream and make me feel like I've been warpped in a big warm blanket? All at the same time?"
The Cubicle Next Door
by Siri L. Mitchell
The Cubicle Next Door
by Siri L. Mitchell
"But if called upon to repeat what I said or what he said, I couldn't. Most of my mind and all my heart were set on the sound of his voice, the warmth of his arm in mine, the rhythm of our steps together, the fresh scent of the night air. And on the wish that each minute would last a year."
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
"'You really don't know anything about me.'
'I know some things.'
'You don't know everything.'
'I know enough.'
'Enough to what?'
'Known you're weird in a cute sort of way.'
'I am not...cute.'
He gave me a long look. 'No. You're right. You're not.'
Funny how hearing the truth can feel like disappointment.
He flashed a grin. 'You're fascinating, mysterious, and intriguing. Cute is too benign for you."
The Cubicle Next Door
by Siri L. Mitchell
'I know some things.'
'You don't know everything.'
'I know enough.'
'Enough to what?'
'Known you're weird in a cute sort of way.'
'I am not...cute.'
He gave me a long look. 'No. You're right. You're not.'
Funny how hearing the truth can feel like disappointment.
He flashed a grin. 'You're fascinating, mysterious, and intriguing. Cute is too benign for you."
The Cubicle Next Door
by Siri L. Mitchell
"But in bed, before I fell asleep, I'd imagine what I would do if I were free of Lucinda's curse. At dinner I'd paint lines of gravy on my fae and hurl meat pasties at Manners Mistress. I'd pile Headmistress's best china on my head and walk with a wobble and a swagger till every piece was smashed. Then I'd collect the smashed pottery and the smashed meat pasties and grind them into all my perfect stichery."
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
"Then I was aware again of the sounds of the orchestra far below. I took a gliding step. I twirled. He bowed.
'The young lady must not dance alone.'
I had danced only at school with other pupils or our mistresses for partners.
He put his hand on my waist, and my heart began to pound, a rougher rhythm than the music. I held my skirt. Our free hands met. His felt warm and comforting and unsettling and bewildering - all at once."
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
'The young lady must not dance alone.'
I had danced only at school with other pupils or our mistresses for partners.
He put his hand on my waist, and my heart began to pound, a rougher rhythm than the music. I held my skirt. Our free hands met. His felt warm and comforting and unsettling and bewildering - all at once."
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
"I hadn't loved him as long, perhaps, but now I loved him equally well, or better. I loved his laugh, his handwriting, his steady gaze, his honorableness, his freckles, his apprectiation of my jokes, his hands, his determination that I should know the worst of him. And, most of all, shameful though it might be, I loved his love for me."
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
"Dear Ella,
Impatience is not usually my weakness. But your letters torment me. They make me long to saddle my horse and ride to Frell, where I would make you explain yourself.
They are playful, interesting, thoughtful, and (occasionally) serious. I'm overjoyed to receive them, yet they bring misery. You say little of your daily life; I have no idea how you occupy yourself. I don't mind; I enjoy guessing at the mystery. But what I really long to know you do not tell either: what you feel, although I've give you hints by the score of my regard.
You like me. You wouldn't waste time or paper on a being you didn't like. But I think I've loved you since we met at your mother's funeral. I want to be with you forever and beyond, but you write that are too young to marry or too old or too short or too hungry - until I crumple your letters up in despair, only to smooth them out again for a twelfth reading, hunting for hidden meanings.
Father asks frequently in his letters whether I fancy any Ayorthain young lady or any in our acquaintence at home. I say no. I suppose I'm confessing another fault: pride. I don't want him to know that I love if my affections are not returned.
You would charm him, and Mother too. They would be yours completely. As I am.
What a beautiful bride you'll be, whenever you marry at whatever age. And what a queen if I am the man! Who has your grace? Your expression? Your voice? I could extol your virtues endlessly, but I want you to finish reading and answer me quickly.
Today I cannot write of Ayortha or my doings or anything. I can only post this and wait.
Love (it is such a relief to pen the word!), love, love-
Char"
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
Impatience is not usually my weakness. But your letters torment me. They make me long to saddle my horse and ride to Frell, where I would make you explain yourself.
They are playful, interesting, thoughtful, and (occasionally) serious. I'm overjoyed to receive them, yet they bring misery. You say little of your daily life; I have no idea how you occupy yourself. I don't mind; I enjoy guessing at the mystery. But what I really long to know you do not tell either: what you feel, although I've give you hints by the score of my regard.
You like me. You wouldn't waste time or paper on a being you didn't like. But I think I've loved you since we met at your mother's funeral. I want to be with you forever and beyond, but you write that are too young to marry or too old or too short or too hungry - until I crumple your letters up in despair, only to smooth them out again for a twelfth reading, hunting for hidden meanings.
Father asks frequently in his letters whether I fancy any Ayorthain young lady or any in our acquaintence at home. I say no. I suppose I'm confessing another fault: pride. I don't want him to know that I love if my affections are not returned.
You would charm him, and Mother too. They would be yours completely. As I am.
What a beautiful bride you'll be, whenever you marry at whatever age. And what a queen if I am the man! Who has your grace? Your expression? Your voice? I could extol your virtues endlessly, but I want you to finish reading and answer me quickly.
Today I cannot write of Ayortha or my doings or anything. I can only post this and wait.
Love (it is such a relief to pen the word!), love, love-
Char"
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
"Not many of my imagined conversations are with the duke. Most of them are with you. I know what I would say if I were in Frell. I'd tell you at least three times how glad I was to see you...I might turn Ayorthian and trail off into silence, lost in smiling at you."
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
Ella Enchanted
by Gail Carson Levine
Thursday, May 28, 2009
"I couldn't figure out what I had won, all I could see was that my losing her was one big black stormy cloud. But then I realize as every day went by, and I thought about her every second and smiled, that meeting her, knowning her, and above all, loving her, was the biggest silver lining of all."
If You Could See Me Now
by Cecelia Ahern
If You Could See Me Now
by Cecelia Ahern
"Life is made up of meetings and partings. People come into your life every day, you say good morning, you say good evening, some stay for a few minutes, some stay for a few months, some a year, others a whole lifetime. No matter who it is, you meet and then you part. I'm so glad I met you; I'll thank my lucky stars for that. I think I wished for you all of my life. But now it's time for us to part."
If You Could See Me Now
by Cecelia Ahern
If You Could See Me Now
by Cecelia Ahern
"But as for your heart, when that breaks, it's completely silent. You would think as it's so important it would make the loudest noise in the whole world or even have some sort of ceremonious sound...But it's silent, and you almost wish there was a noise to distract you from the pain."
If You Could See Me Now
by Cecelia Ahern
If You Could See Me Now
by Cecelia Ahern
"Dearest! If you love me, you are mine. Who can have so great a claim on you as I have? My life is bound up in your love. There is nothing in the past that can annul our right to each other; it is the first time we have either of us loved with our whole heart and soul."
The Mill on the Floss
by George Eliot
The Mill on the Floss
by George Eliot
"It had been so long since she had seen him, and she had lived on memories until they were worn thing. She knew he still loved her. That fact was evident, in every line of him...She so longed to hear him say it in words, longed to speak words herself that would provoke a confession, but she dared not."
Gone With the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
Gone With the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
"You are so fine and strong and good. So beautiful, not just your sweet face, my dear, but all of you, your body and your mind and your soul...I like to think that perhaps I know you better than most people, and that I can see beautiful things buried deep in you that others are too careless and too hurried to notice."
Gone With the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
Gone With the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
"I'm afraid of not having enough time. Not having enough time to understand people, how they really are, or to be understood myself. I'm afraid of the quick judgements and mistakes that everybody makes. You can't fix them without time. I'm afraid of seeing snapshots instead of movies."
The Sisterhood of the Travling Pants
by Ann Brashares
The Sisterhood of the Travling Pants
by Ann Brashares
"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone forever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me here. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in me."
Persuasion
by Jane Austen
Persuasion
by Jane Austen
"Because one thing he was good at, possibly the only thing, was imaging things so clearly that he almost saw and hear them. When he told himself stories, he sometimes forgot everything around him and awoke - as though from a dream - only when the story was finished."
The Neverending Story
by Michel Ende
The Neverending Story
by Michel Ende
"If you have never wept bitter tears because a wonderful story has come to an end and you must take your leave of the characters with whom you have shared so many adventures, whom you have loved and admired, for whom you have hoped and feared, and without whose company life seems empty and meaningless..."
The Neverending Story
by Michel End
The Neverending Story
by Michel End
"The bond forged between us was not one that could be broken by absence, distance, or time. And no matter how much more special or beautiful or brilliant or perfect than me he might be, he was as irreversibly altered as I was. As I would always belong to him, so he would always be mine."
New Moon
by Stephanie Meyer
New Moon
by Stephanie Meyer
"I gave up hoping, for even my heart acknowledged it was all in vain. But still, I would think of him: I would cherish his image in my mind; and treasure every word, look, and gesture that my memory could retain; and brood over his excellences and his peculiarities, and, in fact, all I had seen, heard, or imagined respecting him."
Agnes Grey
by Anne Bronte
Agnes Grey
by Anne Bronte
"He had not breathed a word of love, or dropped one hint of tenderness or affection, and yet I had been supremely happy. To be near him, to hear him talk as he did talk, and to feel that he thought me worthy to be so spoken to - capable of understanding and duly appreciating such discourse - was enough."
Agnes Grey
by Anne Bronte
Agnes Grey
by Anne Bronte
"Yes, at least, they could not deprive me of that: I could think of him day and night; and I feel that he was worthy to be thought of. Nobody knew him as I did; nobody could apprectiate him as I did; nobody could love him as I - could, if I might: but there was the evil. What business had I to think so much of one that never thought of me? Was it not foolish? Was it not wrong? Yet, if I found such deep delight in thinking of him, and if I kept those thoughts to myself, and troubled no one else with them, where was the harm of it? I would ask myself. And such reasoning prevented me from making any sufficient effort to shake off my fetters."
Agnes Grey
by Anne Bronte
Agnes Grey
by Anne Bronte
"...my only consolation was in thinking that, though he knew it not, I was more worthy of his love than Rosalie Murray, charming and engaging as she was; for I could apprectiate his excellence, which she could not; I would devote my life to the promotion of his happiness; she would destroy his happiness for the momentary gratification of her own vanity."
Agnes Grey
by Anne Bronte
Agnes Grey
by Anne Bronte
"...I used to rush into strange dreams at night: dreams many-colored, agitated, full of the ideal, the stirring, the stormy - dreams where admidst unusual scenes, charged with adventure, with agitating risk and romantic chance, I still again and again met Mr. Rochester, always at some exciting crisis; and then the sense of being in his arms, hearing his voice, meeting his eye, touching his hand and cheek, loving him, being loved by him - the hope of passing a lifetime at his side, would be renewed, with all its first force and fire."
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
"Honestly, I had no idea that the heart could cause such trouble and strife. It could be broken and still mend. It could be wounded and still heal. It could be given away and still returned, lost and still found. It could do all that and still you lived, though only just, according to some."
I, Coriander
by Sally Gardner
I, Coriander
by Sally Gardner
"There's something about a blank page that makes me tingle. I love how smooth, and crips, and clean it is. I love how this plain and perfect piece of paper seems to be just waiting for me to put my own special mark on it, to make it mine. And now that I think of it, that's exactly what I love about tomorrows."
Moving Day
by Nikki Grimes
Moving Day
by Nikki Grimes
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
"Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put thier hope in God used to make themselves beautiful."
1 Peter 3:3-5
1 Peter 3:3-5
"No sooner did I see that his attention was riveted on them, and that I might gaze without being observed, than my eyes were drawn involuntarily to his face; I could not keep their lids under control: they would rise, and the irids would fix on him. I looked, and had an acute pleasure in looking..."
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
"Whatever comes...cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it."
A Little Princess
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
A Little Princess
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
"Loving, guiding, protecting her, as he had been doing ever since her being ten years old, her mind in so great a degree formed by his care, and her comfort depending on his kindness, and object to him or such close and peculiar interest, dearer by all his own imprtance with her than anyone else..."
Mansfield Park
by Jane Austen
Mansfield Park
by Jane Austen
"Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars - points of light and reason...And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brillancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn't see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything."
New Moon
by Stephanie Meyer
New Moon
by Stephanie Meyer
"You are not asleep, and you're not dead. I'm here, and I love you. I have always loved you, and I will always love you. I was thinking of you, seeing your face in my mind, every second that I was away. When I told you that I didn't want you, it was the very blackest kind of blasphemy."
New Moon
by Stephanie Meyer
New Moon
by Stephanie Meyer
"I want my daughters to be beautiful, accomplished, and good; to be admired, lovely and respected; to have a happy youth, to be well and wisely married, and to lead useful, pleasant lives with as little care and sorrow to try them as God sees fit to send. To be loved and chosen by a good man is the best and sweetest thing which can happen to a woman and I sincerely hope my girls may know this beautiful experience. It is natural to think of it, Meg, right to hope and wait for it, and wise to prepare for it, so that when the happy time comes, you may feel ready for the duties and worthy of the joy...I'd rather see you poor mens' wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace....better be happy old maids than unhappy wives of unmaidenly girls, running about to find husbands."
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
"I'm glad you can't flirt; it's really refreshing to see a sensible, straight forward girl, who can be jolly and kind without making a fool of herself. Between ourselves, Jo, some of the girls I know really do go on at such a rate, I'm ashamed of them. They don't mean any harm, I'm sure, but if they knew how we fellows talked about them afterward, they'd mend their ways, I fancy."
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
Little Women
by Louisa May Alcott
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love deoes not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
"To you I shall say, as I have often said before, Do not be in a hurry, the right man will come at last; you will in the course of the next two or three years meet with somebody more generally unexceptionable than anyone you have yet known, who will love you as warmly as possible, and who will so completely attach you that you will feel you never really loved before."
-Jane Austen
-Jane Austen
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