a place for the things

My online commonplace book.

[thequotejournals]

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.

Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (via conceptvals)

[meanwhilepoetry]

Part of being a good person is finding the strength and kindness to walk away even when you are holding a tinder box that could blaze through an evil person’s entire world. You see, good people recognise that evil, hatred and cowardice are cut from the same cloth and they must never bring themselves down to the level of those who bring that kind of destruction into their lives. Even when they have the power to destroy someone awful, good people always choose to walk away. Because thats the difference between good people and evil people. It takes more courage to walk away, than to set something already exceptionally flammable on fire, just because you like to watch things burn.

Nikita Gill, The Difference Between Good People and Evil People (via meanwhilepoetry)

[quoted-books]

You won’t understand what I mean now, but someday you will: the only trick of friendship, I think, is to find people who are better than you are—not smarter, not cooler, but kinder, and more generous, and more forgiving—and then to appreciate them for what they can teach you, and to try to listen to them when they tell you something about yourself, no matter how bad—or good—it might be, and to trust them, which is the hardest thing of all. But the best, as well.

Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life (via quoted-books)

[winemomnation-deactivated201601]

But these were days of self-fulfillment, where settling for something that was not quite your first choice of a life seemed weak-willed and ignoble. Somewhere, surrendering to what seemed to be your fate has changed from being dignified to being a sign of your own cowardice. There were times when the pressure to achieve happiness felt almost oppressive, as if happiness were something that everyone should and could attain, and that any sort of compromise in its pursuit was somehow your fault.

Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life (via winemomnation)

[snarkelot]

What in life wasn’t connected to some greater, sadder story?

Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life (via snarkme)

[aaronburch]

A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara ON SUCCESS

[wnq-writers]

But you see, there is a graveyard in my mouth, filled with words that have died on my lips.

ribsnroyals (via wnq-writers)

[darksideoftheshroom-deactivated]

You have to be odd to be number one.

Dr. Seuss

This changed me

(via reveriesofawriter)

[learningfromthehands-blog]

I am afraid of getting older … I am afraid of getting married. Spare me from cooking three meals a day—spare me from the relentless cage of routine and rote. I want to be free…. I want, I want to think, to be omniscient…. I think I would like to call myself ‘The girl who wanted to be God.’

Sylvia Plath written in 1949 at age 17  (via learningfromthehands)

[shroudy]

A lot of people… tell me I’m a bit… dreamy. But I like the idea of that. Of being somewhere else.

Alex Turner (Q Magazine Interview)

[michellekpoems]

Nostalgia is a dirty liar that insists things were better than they seemed.

Michelle K (via 70sgroupie)

[sad-plath]

I loved her, atom by atom, one burning cell at a time.

Kami Garcia, Beautiful Darkness (via sad-plath)

[trudetctve]

You've got it all You lost your mind in the sound There's so much more You can reclaim your crown You're in control Rid of the monsters inside your head Put all your faults to bed You can be king again

Lauren Aquilina, King

[trudetctve]

'Well, you can't break an Unbreakable Vow...' 'I'd worked that much out for myself, funnily enough.'

J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

[hotdamhistorian]

'You read too much, Hermione,' said Ron

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

[trudetctve]

show me a hero and I’ll write you a tragedy

 F. Scott Fitzgerald

[trudetctve]

My labor is in no way meant for those who are tainted even slightly by the symptoms of the disease which is the conceit of sanctimoniousness

 Kshemendra (Kashmiri poet), Three Satires 

edited/translated by Somadeva Vasudeva, NYU Press 2005