Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures
- Communication According to Marcellus the Octopus
It seems to be a hallmark of the human species: abysmal communication skills. Not that any other species are much better, mind you, but even a herring can tell which way the school it belongs to is turning and follow accordingly. Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire?
Rumaan Alam
- Children - Leave the World Behind
They had asked themselves questions when they decided to have children-do we have the money, do we have the space, do we have what it takes-but they didn't ask what the world would be when their children grew.
Matthew Perry
- Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing - Ch. 11
I try not to think too hard about the incredible women I had passed over because of a fear it took me too long to understand. I try not to dwell on this too much. If you spend too much time looking in the rearview mirror, you WILL crash your car.
John Mark Comer
- Attention - The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry
What you give your attention to is the person you become. Put another way: the mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
- So Much Time
So much of our time is spent in preparation, so much in routine, and so much in retrospect, that the amount of each person's genius is confined to a very few hours.
Garrison Keillor
- Luck
Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.
Nora Ephron
- Why I Love You - Harry Burns
I love that you get cold when it's seventy-one degrees out. I love that it takes you an hour and a half to order a sandwich. I love that you get a little crinkle above your nose when you're lookin' at me like I'm nuts. I love that after I spend the day with you, I can still smell your perfume on my clothes. And I love that you are the last person I want to talk to before I go to sleep at night.
Brené Brown
- Vulnerability
Vulnerability is terrifying and it's dangerous and scary, and the only guarantee I can give you is it's not as terrifying or as dangerous or scary as getting to the end of our lives and having to ask ourselves, "What if I would have shown up?"
Jane Austen
- Mr. Darcy's Failings - Price and Prejudice
I have faults enough, but they are not, I hope, of understanding. My temper I dare not vouch for. It is, I believe, too little yielding- certainly too little for the convenience of the world. I cannot forget the follies and vices of other so soon as I ought, nor their offenses against myself. My feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them. My temper would perhaps be called resentful. My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.
