There is everything you know and there is everything that happens. When the two do not line up, you make a choice.

Every time I learn the truth about something, I’m disappointed.

I don’t know how to answer. I know what I think, but words in the head are like voices underwater. They are distorted.

you almost convinced me you were gonna stick around, but everybody knows, almost doesn't count.

 You do this every time. Every time! Do you have some sort of radar? Like, "Oh, she might be happy. It's time to sweep in and shit all over it!"

It's when you're having the worst day ever and the touch of his hand makes everything better.

and if i actually start to matter.. let me know

just because i finally got over you,doesn't mean there aren't days when it all just comes rushing back.

If you can't convince them, confuse them.

we are all programmed to believe that if a guy acts like a total jerk that means he likes you.

"I woke up in the morning and I didn’t want anything, didn’t do anything, couldn’t do it anyway, just lay there listening to the blood rush through me and it never made any sense, anything."

- Richard Siken

I know we're good together. You're the only person I can be myself with, even if I don't know who the hell that is.

You see, when a girl decides that you’re her friend, you’re no longer a dating option. You become a complete non-sexual entity in her eyes, like a brother - or a lamp.

if you hold back feelings because you're afraid of getting hurt, you end up hurting, anyway.

i’ve been through hell and back, but just because i made it doesn’t mean it was ever okay.

Maybe when people longed for a thing that bad, the longing made them trust in anything that might give it to them.

Make yourself so happy so that when others look at you they become happy too.

And now you’re just two different people, trying to forget about each other.

Letting go isn't a one time thing; it's something you do everyday, over and over again.

There's always something left if two people really loved each other.

— Haruki Murakami

"But I didn't understand then. That I could hurt somebody so badly she would never recover. That a person can, just by living, damage another human being beyond repair." 

"Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I'm gazing at a distant star. 

It's dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago. Maybe the star doesn't even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything." 

"I think you still love me, but we can’t escape the fact that I’m not enough for you. I knew this was going to happen. So I’m not blaming you for falling in love with another woman. I’m not angry, either. I should be, but I’m not. I just feel pain. A lot of pain. I thought I could imagine how much this would hurt, but I was wrong."

"We are all unkind from time to time. We all do things we desperately wish we could undo. Those regrets just become part of who we are, along with everything else. To spend time trying to change that, well, it’s like chasing clouds."

"People have a habit of inventing fictions they will believe wholeheartedly in order to ignore the truth they cannot accept.

THOSE WHO HATE MOST FERVENTLY MUST HAVE ONCE LOVED DEEPLY; THOSE WHO WANT TO DENY THE WORLD MUST HAVE ONCE EMBRACED WHAT THEY NOW SET ON FIRE.

"You are the distance between the way things are and the way I want them to be."

 

"I think she was afraid to love sometimes. I think it scared her. She was the type to like things that were concrete, like the ocean. Something you could point to and know what it is. I think that’s why she always struggled with God. And I think that’s why she also struggled with love. She couldn’t touch it. She couldn’t hold on to it and make sure it never changed. But sometimes it’s those things you can’t touch that you need to hold on to the most." 

— Carrie Ryan

"Don’t rely on someone else for your happiness and self worth. Only you can be responsible for that. If you can’t love and respect yourself - no one else will be able to make that happen. Accept who you are - completely; the good and the bad - and make changes as YOU see fit - not because you think someone else wants you to be different." 

— Stacey Charter 

"at some point, you will realize that you have done too much for someone, that the only possible next step is to stop. Leave them alone. Walk away. It’s not like you’re giving up and it’s not like you shouldn’t try, it’s just that you have to draw the line between determination and desperation. What is truly yours will eventually be yours and what is not, no matter how hard you try, never will be."

 

"Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room."

"You won’t be his first, his last, or his only. He’s loved before, he will love again, but if he loves you now, what else matters? He’s not perfect. You aren’t either, and the two of you will never be perfect. But if he can make you laugh at least once, causes you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can. He isn’t going to quote poetry. He’s not thinking about you every moment, but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break. Don’t hurt him, don’t change him, and don’t expect more than he can give. Don’t analyze. Smile when he makes you happy, yell when he makes you mad, and miss him when he’s not there. Love hard when there is love to be had. Because perfect guys don’t exist, but there’s always one guy who is perfect for you." 

"Do you think I’m wonderful? she asked him one day as they leaned against the trunk of a petrified maple. No, he said. Why? Because so many girls are wonderful. I imagine hundreds of men have called their loves wonderful today, and it’s only noon. You couldn’t be something that hundreds of others are." 

— Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated