we don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey no one can take for us or spare us ...

"We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us."
-Marcel Proust

"Therefore, you can never lose hope -- hatikva -- because if you keep hope alive, it will keep you alive."
-from City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare

"Adversity tests one's strength of character. In difficult times, in dark times, some people shine."
-from City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare

"Bar none, the Old English D is just as classic as it gets."
-Brennan Boesch

"Don't let them reduce you to that ... Don't let them define how you see yourself, or your place here. And if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm not hard to find."
-from Fated (Soul Seekers #1) by Alyson Noel

"There are moments in life when everything pauses. The earth hesitates, the atmosphere stills, and time shrinks and folds onto itself."
-from Fated (Soul Seekers #1) by Alyson Noel

"From the moment I saw you, I knew you were different. ... Guess my instincts are good. Some things you just know without question."
-from Fated (Soul Seekers #1) by Alyson Noel

"You gotta adjust to the dark so the light can find you."
-from Fated (Soul Seekers #1) by Alyson Noel

"A seeker must learn to see in the dark -- relying on what she knows in her heart."
-from Fated (Soul Seekers #1) by Alyson Noel

"The two of us drawn to each other, bound by forces unseen. But before he can get to the words, I break free of the spell and make a mad limping dash."
-from Fated (Soul Seekers #1) by Alyson Noel

"[They] allowed me to be ripped apart so I could be rebuilt. And because of it, I am now bigger, better, and stronger than I ever thought possible."
-from Fated (Soul Seekers #1) by Alyson Noel

If by the time the bar closes,
You feel like falling down
I'll carry you home
Tonight
We are young,
So let's set the world on fire,
We can burn brighter
Than the sun
-"We Are Young" by Fun

I threw a wish in the well
Don't ask me I'll never tell
I look to you as it fell and now you're in my way
I trade my soul for a wish,
Pennies and dimes for a kiss,
I wasn't looking for this
But now you're in my way
Your stare was holding
Ripped jeans, skin was showing,
Hot night, wind was blowing
Where you think you're going baby?
Hey, I just met you,
And this is crazy
But here's my number
So call me, maybe
It's hard to look right at you, baby
But here's my number,
So call me, maybe ...
You took your time with call,
I took my time with the fall,
You gave me nothing at all,
But still you're still in my way
I beg and borrow and steal,
At first sight and it's real
I didn't know I would feel it
But it's in my way
-from "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen

"No man chooses evil because it is evil. He only mistakes it for happiness, the good he seeks."
-Mary Wollstonecraft

"You would do anything save him, whatever it cost you, whatever you might owe to Hell or Heaven, would you not?"
-from City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare

"There are some people -- people the universe seems to have singled out for special destinies. Special favors and special torments. God knows we're all drawn toward what's beautiful and broken; I have been, but some people cannot be fixed. Or if they can be, it's only by love and sacrifice so great it destroys the giver."
-from City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare

"Nerd love. It is a beautiful thing, while also being an object mockery and hilarity for those of us who are more sophisticated."
-from City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare

"In a true partnership, the kind that lasts through the ages, there is an unspoken communion."
-from City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare

"I knew you were crazy. ... But I didn't realize you absolutely spectacularly out of your goddamned mind."
-from City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare

"Comforting someone when they were stricken with loss was something else. It meant commitment. It meant caring. It meant you wanted to ease their pain, and at the same time you were thanking God that whatever the bad thing was that had happened, it hadn't happened to them."
-from City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare

"I was in the dark ... There was nothing there but shadows, and I was a shadow. And then I heard your voice."
-from City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare

"If you don't say something to him, he's going to assume it's because you're not interested, and he'll give up. He needs you, Iz, and you need him. He just also needs you to be the one to say it."
-from City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare

"There are ways in which we're so alike. We're reckless. We don't think before we act. We'll do anything for the people we love. And I never thought how scary that was for the people who loved me and i saw you and it terrified me. How could I protect you if you wouldn't let me?"
-from City of Lost Souls (Mortal Instruments #5) by Cassandra Clare

You know, the bed feels warmer
Sleeping here alone
You know, I dream in color
And do the things I want
You think you got the best of me,
Think you had the last laugh,
Bet you think that everything good is gone,
Think you left me broken down,
Think that I'd come running back,
Baby, you don't know me,
'Cause your dead wrong
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely 'cause I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter,
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn't mean I'm over 'cause you're gone
You heard that I was starting over with someone new,
They told you I was moving on, over you
You didn't think that I'd come back,
I'd come back swinging,
You tried to break me but you see,
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger ...
Thanks to you, I got a new thing started
Thanks to you, I'm not the brokenhearted
Thanks to you, I'm finally thinking 'bout me
You know, in the end the day I left was just the beginning
-from "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson

For you, there'll be no more crying,
For you, the sun will be shining,
And I feel that when I'm with you,
It's all right, I know it's right
To you, I'll give the world
To you, I'll never be cold
'Cause I feel that when I'm with you,
It's all right, I know it's right
And the songbirds are singing like they know the score
-from "Songbird" by Fleetwood Mac

if you're for real and not pretend, then i guess you can hang with me ...

This post is already ridiculously long, so I'll have more tomorrow from a couple books I've read and some of my current favorite songs. :)

You had a lot of crooks tryin' to steal your heart

Never really had luck, couldn't figure out how to love,

How to love

You had a lot of moments that didn't last forever

Now you're in the corner tryin' to put it all together

How to love, how to love,

When you was just a youngin' your looks were so precious

Now you're grown up so fly, so fly it's like a blessing

But you can't have a man look at you for five seconds

Without you being insecure ...

Oh, you had a lot of dreams that transformed in to visions

The fact that you saw the world affected all your decisions

But it wasn't your fault

Wasn't in your intentions ...

See, I just want you to know

That you deserve the best and you're beautiful

... And I want you to know you're far from the usual

-from "How to Love" by Lil' Wayne

If you're for real and not pretend

Then I guess you can hang with me

When my patience's wearing thin

And I'm ready to give in

Will you pick me up again?

Then I guess you can hang with me

And if you do right by me

I'm gonna do right by you

And if you keep it tight

I'm gonna confide in you

I know what's on your mind, 

There will be time for that, too,

If you hang with me ... 

When you see me drift astray

Out of touch and out of place

Will you tell me to my face?

Then I guess you can hang with me

-from "Hang With Me" by Robyn

"Since he knew things at the beginning, maybe at the end he knew things, too. That we had gone as far as chance would take us. That nothing is more sacred than youth or more hopeful than turning yourself over to someone and saying: 'I have this time, it is not a long time, but it is my best time and my best gift, and I give it to you.' When I revisit my youth, I revisit you."

-from Anthropology of An American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann

"The paradox of love is that to have it is to want to preserve it because it's perfect in the moment, but that preservation is impossible because the perfection is only ever an instant passed through. Love, like travel, is a series of moments that we immediately leave behind. Still, we try to hold on and embalm against all evidence and common sense, proclaiming our promises and plans. The more I loved him, the more I felt hope. But hope acknowledges uncertainty and so I also felt my first premonitions."
-from Wanderlust: An Affair with the Five Continents by Elizabeth Eaves

"Something about first love defies duplication. Before it, your heart is blank. Unwritten. After, the walls are left inscribed and graffitied. When it ends, no amount of scrubbing will purge the scrawled oaths and sketched images, but sooner or later, you find that there's space for someone else, between the words and in the margins."
-from Where You Are by Tamara Webber

Are you gonna kiss me or not?
Are we gonna do this or what?
I think you I like you a lot,
But you're 'bout to miss your shot
Are you gonna kiss me or not?
... I really think we got a shot
Are you gonna kiss me or not?
-from "Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not?" by Thompson Square

There's a boy I know,
He's the one I dream of
Looks into my eyes
Takes me to the clouds above
Oh, I lose control
Can't seem to get enough, uh-huh,
When I wake from dreaming,
Tell me is it really love?
How will I know?
Don't trust your feelings
How will I know?
How will I know?
Love can be deceiving
How will I know?
How will I know if he really loves me?
I say a prayer with every heart beat
I fall in love whenever we meet
I'm asking you 'cause you know about these things
How will I know if he's thinking of me?
I try to phone, but I'm too shy can't speak,
Falling in love is all bittersweet
This love is strong,
Why do I feel weak?
-from "How Will I Know?" by Whitney Houston

"The glue of mutual need that bonded us so tightly together for all those years is melting away. Dark patches, not light, show the spaces between us. How can it be that today, in the face of 12's horrible demise, we are too angry to even speak to each other."
-from Mockingjay (Hunger Games Trilogy #3) by Suzanne Collins

"I drag myself out of nightmares each morning and find there's no relief in waking. ... Better not to give in to it. It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart."
-from Mockingjay (Hunger Games Trilogy #3) by Suzanne Collins

"My guess is that fearful events are the hardest to root out. They're the ones we naturally remember the best, after all."
-from Mockingjay (Hunger Games Trilogy #3) by Suzanne Collins

i make my own sunshine ...

"Look at what isn't there. It's the only way you might survive."
-from The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan

"You can never be free of your shadow -- your sheut. All living beings have them. ... The sheut is not just a physical shadow. It's a magical projection -- the silhouette of the soul."
-from The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan

"Knowledge of any value can't be given. It must be sought and earned."
-from The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan

"I never liked being thwarted. Whenever I felt like something was impossible, I usually tried even harder out of sheer stubbornness."
-from The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan

"Befriending psychopaths is one of our specialties."
-from The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan

"Here's some free advice: Don't walk towards chaos."
-from The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan

"Together, we tried to find calm in the chaos. I focused on the most peaceful, well-ordered moments of my life."
-from The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan

"Funny how that works: sometimes you don't really understand something until you destroy it."
-from The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan

"A person's shadow stood for his legacy, his impact on the world. Some people cast hardly any shadow at all. Some cast long, deep shadows that endured for centuries."
-from The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan

"For what it's worth: trust your feelings. I can't promise that you'll never get hurt again, but I can promise you the risk is worth it."
-from The Serpent's Shadow (Kane Chronicles #3) by Rick Riordan

Everything is wonderful
Everything is great
Free as a bird singing outside my window pane
Got a fresh new start
It's a brand new day
And I've got lots of love to give away
It don't matter if it's raining, nothing can faze me
I make my own sunshine
And if you think you can break me,
Baby you're crazy
I make my own sunshine
-"I Make My Own Sunshine" by Alyssa Bonagura

"'The very first time I saw you,' Daniel continued, 'it wasn't any different than any other time I've seen you since. the world was newer, but you were just the same. It was--' 'Love at first sight.' That part she knew. He nodded. 'Just like always.'"
-from Torment (Fallen #2) by Lauren Kate

"When we summon Announcers, we're making a sort of wish. Not a wish for anything material, but a wish to better understand the world, our role in it, and what's to become of us."
-from Torment (Fallen #2) by Lauren Kate

"Sometimes beautiful things come into our lives out of nowhere. We can't always understand them, but we have to trust in them. I know you want to question everything, but sometime it pays to just have a little faith."
-from Torment (Fallen #2) by Lauren Kate

"If I could go back in time and talk to my twenty-year-old self, the first thing I would say is: 'Lose the perm.' Secondly I would say: "Relax. Really. Just relax. Don't sweat it.' I can't remember a time when I wasn't anxious and fearful that the parade would pass me by. And I was sure there was someone or something outside of myself with all the answers. I had a driving, anxiety-filled ambition. ... I wanted to belong and feel like I was valued and seen."
-from Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

"As I look back, the road to where I am today has been a series of happy accidents I was either smart or stupid enough to take advantage of. I thought I had to have a plan, a strategy. Turns out I just had to be ready and willing to take chances, look at what's right in front of me, and put my heart into everything I do."
-from Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

"We were all swept up in the electricity of putting on this show. We were more focused, disciplined, and committed than we had ever been in our young lives. We had all pitched in to build the set together, and showed up after school for rehearsals. When we finally performed, no one missed a line or a cue. We were a team, and we supported one another. Being a part of this group of fellow actors, feeling needed and valued and there for one another, was a high I would chase for the rest of my life."
-from Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

"I had gone to great lengths to please people who never had any intention of pleasing me back or giving me what I wanted."
-from Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

"All my life, I'd felt I was at the mercy of people and circumstances; I'd had the sense that life was happening to me. This book presented the jaw-dropping idea that I had the power to consciously choose how I see the world and the people around me, and that my life could be different if I made more powerful choices."
-from Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

"What I came to know was that it was the shadow, the great unclaimed areas of the psyche, that my best work would come out of. If I feel proud of anything I've done in my acting career, it came from the stuff that is hard to look at; stuff that feels sticky and dark. These parts tend to want to stay far from the light of day, as they conjure fear or shame. ... I hadn't yet learned how valuable these places are creatively."
-from Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

"I do enjoy the spotlight, but only for moments at a time, and I would prefer to have others in it with me. it's one thing when you're sharing performance anxiety with a group, and another when you're out there all by your lonesome."
-from Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

"I didn't have time to think and let the fear stop me. I put my head down like a bull and barreled forward."
-from Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

"I didn't know how to fall in love with an actual person, but boy could I create a great one in my imagination."
-from Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

"After one evening with someone, even someone this wonderful, I had no business deciding I'd found my soul mate. And yet that was what I was feeling."
-from Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

"The way I see it, these accidents of fate were actually my life taking care of me."
-from Happy Accidents by Jane Lynch

i hope this gets to you ...

I've been searching for a couple words
That could grow wings and fly like birds
And I know, of course, that it sounds absurd
But when you're in love, all the lines get blurred ...
Just imagine the world a little smaller tonight
And I hope this, I hope this gets to you
And I hope this, I hope this gets to you
... You think you feel my heart jumping through my chest
And when you look at me, it beats three times as fast
And all of this is passing us too quick for regrets
-"I Hope This Gets to You" by The Daylights

"It's amazing how close I have been, all this time, to my old life. And yet the distance that divides me from it is vast."
-from Pandemonium (Delirium Trilogy #2) by Lauren Oliver

"There are always choices. As long as we're still breathing, we can keep making choices and keep striving for our objectives. the choices aren't always ones we like, but I honestly believe that if we keep choosing, we can often get to where we need to be. If we stop choosing we have no chance. Accepting limitations isn't my first choice because it feels, to me, like it limits the options we can see."
-Melissa Marr

"I wonder if this is how people always get close: They heal each other's wounds; they repair the broken skin."
-from Pandemonium (Delirium Trilogy #2) by Lauren Oliver

"Whenever he came near, she could smell wildflowers, could hear the rustle of willow branches, as if she were sitting by a pond on one of those rare summer days: a taste of midsummer in the start of the frigid fall And she wanted to keep that taste, bask in it, roll in it until the warmth soaked into her very skin. It terrified her, the almost irresistible urge to get closer to him ... He terrified her."
-from Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely #1) by Melissa Marr

"Beauty wasn't in the order, but in unplanned harmony."
-from Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely #1) by Melissa Marr

"Maybe you should slow down, so I can catch you."
-from Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely #1) by Melissa Marr

"She'd been resisting the need to reach out to him since they first met. It wasn't logical but it was definitely there."
-from Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely #1) by Melissa Marr

"I give you my vow of honor ... And from this day forward, your wishes shall be my own as often as I am able."
-from Wicked Lovely (Wicked Lovely #1) by Melissa Marr


"To all the people who've been in the abyss and found (or are finding) a way to reach solid ground -- you're proof that the seemingly impossible can happen."
-Melissa Marr's dedication from Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely #2)


"The things you do when you're desperate aren't who you are."
-from Ink Exchange (Wicked Lovely #2) by Melissa Marr


"Just be you -- strong and honest. The rest falls into place if you do that. It always has. It always will. Remember that. No matter what happens over centuries ahead of you, remember to be honest with yourself. And if you fail, forgive yourself. You'll make mistakes. The whole world is new."
-from Fragile Eternity (Wicked Lovely #3) by Melissa Marr

"Better to take a chance on forever than wonder 'what if' later."
-from Fragile Eternity (Wicked Lovely #3) by Melissa Marr

"Sometimes, things just need a little attention and time to grow."
-from Fragile Eternity (Wicked Lovely #3) by Melissa Marr

"To be remade means someone giving you of themselves."
-from Fragile Eternity (Wicked Lovely #3) by Melissa Marr

"Some choices can be traps. Do you honestly think that staying the course just because you once thought it was right is wise? There are other choices."
-from Radiant Shadows (Wicked Lovely #4) by Melissa Marr

"I need to belong to one person, who belongs only to me."
-from Darkest Mercy (Wicked Lovely #5) by Melissa Marr

"I want to be loved; I want to be consumed by it."
-from Darkest Mercy (Wicked Lovely #5) by Melissa Marr

"She spotted a lone dandelion, and it crossed her mind that a younger Luce would have pounced on it and then made a wish and blown. But this Luce's wishes felt too heavy for something so light."
-from Fallen (Fallen #1) by Lauren Kate

"People are here because they've got baggage. I'm talking curbside-check-in, pay-the-fine-'cause-it's-over-fifty-pounds kind of baggage. Got it?"
-from Fallen (Fallen #1) by Lauren Kate

"This was precisely the kind of circular argument she did not want to engage in. Luce didn't want to play any games. She just wanted to be with him. Only, she had no idea why. Or how to go about it. Or really, what being with him would even mean. All she knew was that, despite everything, he was the one she thought about. The one she cared about. She'd thought if she could track every time they'd connected ... she might be able to find some reason."
-from Fallen (Fallen #1) by Lauren Kate

"She would tell him that she wasn't going to let fear drive her away, not this time, not anymore. Because she knew something, understood something that had taken her far too long to piece together. Something wild and strange made their past experiences together both more and less believable ... She hadn't understood what it meant, what it all added up to -- the pull she felt toward time, her dreams -- until now."
-from Fallen (Fallen #1) by Lauren Kate