if you can, you should.

Value yourself. The only people who appreciate a doormat are people with dirty shoes.

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Time healed, they said, but it wasn’t true, or not completely. The first raw wound of loss had closed and silvered over, yes, but the scar it had left would never heal. It would always be there, aching and tender.

Ruth Ware, The Death of Mrs. Westaway

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Grief is an unfillable hole in your body. It should be weightless, but it’s heavy. Should be cold, but it burns. Should, over time, close up, but instead it deepens.

Emily Henry, A Million Junes

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You see, for me, memories are difficult. Very often, they hurt. A curious thing about grief is the way it takes your entire life, all those foundational years that made you who you are, and makes them so painful to look back upon because of the absence there, that suddenly they’re inaccessible.

Casey McQuiston, Red, White & Royal Blue

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It’s strange that I could have laughed so hard under those circumstances, during that very dark moment in my life. But I’ve decided sorrow can make things funnier. Endure enough hardship, and you start really needing a good laugh.

Katherine Center, How to Walk Away

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Perhaps it is the greater grief to be left on earth when another is gone.

Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

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What stays with me most is a general sense of loss, unease, and longing for the past that cannot be relieved.

Lisa See, Shanghai Girls

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Sometimes, I think we’re afraid to admit we want certain things. Especially things that contradict the image we have of ourselves.

Debbie Macomber, Twenty Wishes

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One of the hardest things to accept when someone you love dies is that life goes on.

Linda Castillo, Long Lost

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How many people can you claim truly care about you? I mean, not just the people in your life who are fun to hang out with, not just the people who you love and trust. But people who feel good when you are happy and successful, feel bad when you are hurt or going through a hard time, people who would walk away from their lives for a little while to help you with yours.

Lisa Unger, Beautiful Lies

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Some lessons you learned by the book. Others you learned from cold hard experience. The latter may not be the best way to learn, but it damn well stuck.

Maya Banks, No Place to Run