Literary Wisdom

I have spent a lot of time scouring the internet for quotes I loved that I can no longer quite remember. A year ago, I started keeping track of them in a journal, but I thought this might be a better way to keep track. This way, I might be able to help...

[programmerhumour]

I dont even know how to make a title for this

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There’s never going to be an end to suffering if ‘he deserves it’ is all the justification people need for inflicting pain.

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

[whatilearnedfromliterature]

What is fate but coincidences in retrospect?

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

[whatilearnedfromliterature]

In love, then, we shall seek understanding.

The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin

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For all those that have to fight for the respect that everyone else is given without question.

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

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Much of history is unwritten. Remember this.

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

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...but what I mean to say is that a whole lot of technically impossible things are always trying to happen to us...

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

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There is a comfort in keeping what is sacred inside us not as a secret, but as a prayer.

When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams

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'You lose certainty that anyone or anything is really instrumental; you know, maybe time just does all the deeds from great to despicable, and uses us, and we pitifully try to save face by pretending we were at the controls. '

Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

[whatilearnedfromliterature]

I want to feel both the beauty and the pain of the age we are living in. I want to survive my life without becoming numb. I want to speak and comprehend words of wounding without having these words become the landscape where I dwell. I want to possess a light touch that can elevate the darkness to the realm of stars.

When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams

[whatilearnedfromliterature]

My voice is born repeatedly in the fields of uncertainty.

When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams

[whatilearnedfromliterature]

A memory is a re-creation, precious because it is both more and less than the original

“An Advanced Readers’ Picture Book of Comparative Cognition” by Ken Liu  

[whatilearnedfromliterature]

The world begins with yes.

When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams

[whatilearnedfromliterature]

To withhold words is power. But to share our words with others, open and honestly, is also power.

When Women Were Birds by Terry Tempest Williams

[whatilearnedfromliterature]

'I started the fire, but I couldn't control how it burned.'

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

[whatilearnedfromliterature]

Every era puts invisible shackles on those who have lived through it, and I can only dance in my chains.

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin (Translated by Ken Lu)

[whatilearnedfromliterature]

Make the present moment your friend rather than your enemy. Because many people live habitually as if the present moment were an obstacle that they need to overcome in order to get to the next moment. And imagine living your whole life like that, where always this moment is never quite right, not good enough because you need to get to the next one. That is continuous stress.

10% Happier by Dan Harris