“You know how it is; sometimes you just want to have a moment between yourself and a turtle and no one else.”

Becky Chambers - A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

“You keep asking why your work is not enough, and I don’t know how to answer that, because it is enough to exist in the world and marvel at it. You don’t need to justify that, or earn it. You are allowed to just live.”

Becky Chambers - A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot, #1)

“But she didn’t believe in God. Or Jesus. Or Satan. Or prayer. I believe in words, she said. I believe in numbers and all the history I understand. I believe in things I can see.”

Jacqueline Woodson - Red at the Bone

“The easiest way to unite a group isn't through love, because love is hard, It makes demands. Hate is simple. So the first thing that happens in a conflict is that we choose a side, because that's easier than trying to hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time.”

Fredrick Backman - Beartown

“This is my soul and the world unwinding, this is my heart in the still winter air. Finally whispering the same two words over and over: Keep walking. Keep walking. Keep walking.”

Emily St. John Mandel - Station Eleven

“Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”

George Orwell - 1984

“I have no idea how people function without near-constant internal chaos. I'd lose my mind.”

Dave Eggers - A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

“Be ready. Be seated. See what courage sounds like. See how brave it is to reveal yourself in this way. But above all, see what it is to still live, to profoundly influence the lives of others after you are gone, by your words.”

Paul Kalanithi - When Breath Becomes Air

“As far as I could see, life demanded skills I didn't have.”

Susanna Kaysen - Girl Interrupted

“People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for.”

Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird

“The days had become a confusion of catastrophes; what seemed impossible in the afternoon was blunt fact by the evening.”

David Benioff - City of Thieves

“Hope is such a painful thing, far more painful than rage.”

Kate Quinn - The Alice Network

“If you don't want a house built, hide the nails and wood."

Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451

“All we’ve managed to find out about the boundaries of the universe is that it hasn’t got any, and all we know about God is that we don’t know anything. We plant an apple tree today, even if we know the world is going to be destroyed tomorrow.

We save those we can.”

Backman - Anxious People

“A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude.” - Huxley, A Brave New World.