“Do you think I am an automaton? — a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! — I have as much soul as you — and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God’s feet, equal — as we are!”

“I’d said it before and meant it: Alive or undead, the love of my life was a badass.”

“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”

“Tell the truth, or someone will tell it for you.”

“People think dreams aren’t real just because they aren’t made of matter, of particles. Dreams are real. But they are made of viewpoints, of images, of memories and puns and lost hopes.”

“It’s like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story.”

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

“We live for books.”

“I think… if it is true that
there are as many minds as there
are heads, then there are as many
kinds of love as there are hearts.”

“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read and you’re pierced.”