“I became aware, then, of the way I moved through the world. No unusual scars or crooked bones. Nothing about the way I looked at first glance that gave me away. I wondered who had done that to him. Who had left it untreated.”
“Discipline is a way of self care.”
“To learn that one has said or done a foolish thing, that is nothing; one must learn that one is nothing but a fool, a much more comprehensive and important lesson .”
“One may often suffer a long time without knowing it”
“Because our strengths are so great, we can afford to appraise our weaknesses with candor.”
“Each precious, present moment can be enjoyed, to be wealthy is to be in life and to appreciate all aspects of it. It’s to be self-aware, live with purpose, and be committed not only to one’s own happiness but to helping others find theirs. True wealth is an inner condition of being.”
“Although a drunk man’s words are a sober man’s thoughts, both the words and thoughts are usually muddled and destructive, as is generally the case with drinkers and talkers.”
“Always remember, every single molecule in your body has been created in the heart of a start through nuclear fusion...”
“Could you imagine what our hormones would be like if the earth had more moons?”
“Living with self-awareness means living in communion with yourself. Communion is a consistent state of kind and conscious connection with your body, emotions, energy and surroundings.”
“Self-awareness is self adventure.”
“My dear child, you must know that you are not only valuable thanks to what you can give, to who you can be for others; but you are also valuable because of the spark of light inside that ignites your eyes, the laughter that is content within your heart, the way you look at your face in the mirror and feel good about what you see, the way you feel joy and sadness both because you are alive and you are you. We are worthy not only thanks to what we can give; but we are also worthy thanks to what we can keep and experience for ourselves. Our lives are not sacrifices. Live a life of calm, contentment and curiosities; not for someone else or for this world; but just because you are you and you are here.”
“Please remember that the lightning has never apologized for breaking skies open; the ocean has never said sorry for sinking ships. You, as well, must never apologize for being a force of nature. And as you love the lightning and as you love the oceans, so shall you love yourself. The skies are yours, the depths are yours-- that is okay. After all, Immortal is not a small nor simple thing. You d have to be stupid to think it would be easy.”
“I didn’t hate her because she was objectively very attractive, although that certainly didn’t help. I’d sometimes catch myself staring sideways, admiring her perfect profile, thinking, Imagine having that, imagine going out into the world with that, with those big, watery eyes and those cheekbones, imagine what that does to a person. I thought that some people had the compassion and intelligence to become fundamentally decent people while also being very beautiful, but that Kate wasn’t one of them. She reapplied her lipstick thirty times a day. She took a selfie every morning and afternoon—not to post or send to anyone, just to look at. She got anxious when she ate carbs. She rearranged her hair and asked for feedback on her posture every few hours. We were once in midconversation about an annoying meeting we had to attend, and she veered off to state “I’ve never had a brown coat,” to no one in particular. I found her a peculiarly oppressive presence—just being near her made me feel anxious. Being beautiful, I suspected, had ruined her life. Sitting next to her, I thought about how exhausting it must be to settle for nothing less than perfection because you had the capacity to obtain it. I felt grateful for my own average looks. My wide and unyielding forehead. My slightly crooked nose. It made me feel like what I was doing was very important and that it could maybe even help people. I started thinking I would work on initiating Kate into the Supper Club as a sort of end goal. If we could get her, we could get anyone.”
“You have to retrace your steps and see how you got to where you are , the bird said sarcastically, which, I might add, is a pretty pathetic situation .”
“We have been taught to seek external validation to know the worth of self. What a shame is it to hand that power to someone else.”
“The original sin was man not knowing his place. Every time, god has sent his messenger to remind man of his place, only few did... only few.”