Destroy Me Quotes

For a moment the feeling crept over me that my work, my vision, is going to destroy me, and for a fleeting moment I let myself take a long, hard look at myself, something I would not otherwise do
out of instinct, on principle, out of self-preservation
look at myself with objective curiosity to see whether my vision has not destroyed me already. I found it comforting to note that I was still breathing. ~ Werner Herzog

People who want to destroy me will create my serenity ~ 'SON Of GOD' P.S.Jagadeesh Kumar

I might be falling in love with you," I whisper, finding it hard to focus on his face.
"Kate," he says, almost sadly.
"what? You might be falling in love with me too?" My voice is hopeful, pathetically hopeful.
He shakes his head.
"You aren't falling in love with me?"
He doesn't respond. I touch his face carefully with the tips of my fingers. His skin is incredibly soft above the line of hard jawbone. I touch his silky black hair. His eyes close and i want to kiss his eyes, but I'm afraid. Afraid of all this. This could destroy me.
He opens his eyes. "Kate, I'm already in love with you. ~ Cindy Martinusen Coloma

I want to be someone else somewhere else with something else to fill my mind. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I will not let triggers, flashbacks,
nightmares control my emotions.
I will not let those tried
to destroy me win this war.
I have awakened and I will
find peace with myself. ~ Julie Jewels Smoot

There is a huge agenda behind trying to destroy me and put me down. ~ Heather Mills

Forsake me not till I deserve
Nor hate me not till I offend;
Destroy me not till that I swerve;
But since ye know that I intend,
Forsake me not. ~ Thomas Wyatt

You have tried to destroy me
and though I perish daily,

I shall not be moved. ~ Maya Angelou

You... you destroy me. ~ Tahereh Mafi

The ocean tosses up a thousand arms to embrace the storm that falls across her like a drunken sailor. His thunder slaps her thighs, his lighting piercing her waters.
They pound me between the hips and I begin to panic, knowing their passion will destroy me. ~ Terry Moore

No matter how badly it was going to hurt, I didn't want to be anywhere but with Lainey. Let her crush me. Let her destroy me. There wasn't much good left of me, but I wanted her to take every last bit. ~ Christine Zolendz

I'm falling in love with you … and I'm going to let you destroy me. ~ Christine Zolendz

I know now what was happening to me, what was overwhelming me, what was about to consume and almost destroy me. Didier had even given me a name for it - assassin grief, he'd once called it: the kind of grief that lies in wait and attacks you from ambush, with no warning and no mercy. I know now that assassin grief can hide for years and then strike suddenly on the happiest day, without discernible reason or exegesis. But on that day, ... almost a year after Khader's death, I couldn't understand the dark and trembling mood that was moving in me, swelling to the sorrow I'd too long denied. I couldn't understand it, so i tried to fight it as a man fights pain or despair. But you can't bite down on assassin grief and will it away. The enemy stalks you, step for step, and knows your every move before you make it. The enemy is your own grieving heart and, when it strikes, it can't miss. ~ Gregory David Roberts

Help me," I sobbed. "I beg you, help me." My eyes burned, but
no tears came. I had lost the basic human ability to weep. Human ... I
am no longer human. "Destroy me. Take pity and send me on my way. ~ Carol Oates

You're everything … Haven't you figured that out? You're everything. I'm in love with you. If anything happened to you, it would destroy me. ~ Kristen Proby

I almost forget that she still hates me, despite how hard I've fallen for her.
And I've fallen.
So hard.
I've hit the ground. ~ Tahereh Mafi

The most dangerous prayer a human being could every pray, "Lord, make me like Christ. I don't care if you have to dethrone me, I don't care if you have to tear apart my ministry, I don't care if you have to destroy me, I don't care what happens - make me like Jesus Christ!" It's practically calling a death sentence upon yourself. But then again, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it abideth alone, but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit. ~ Paul David Washer

Nothing that had happened to me thus far had been sufficient to destroy me; nothing had been destroyed except my illusions. I myself was intact. The world was intact. ~ Henry Miller

I continue to wonder,' he said, glancing down at Min, 'why you all assume that I am too dense to see what you find so obvious. Yes, Nynaeve. Yes, this hardness will destroy me. I know.' ...
You all claim that I have grown too hard, that I will inevitably shatter and break if I continue on. But you assume that there needs to be something left of me to continue on ...
That's the key, Nynaeve. I see it now. I will not live through this, and so I don't need to worry about what might happen to me after the Last Battle. I don't need to hold back, don't need to salvage anything of this beaten up soul of mine. ~ Brandon Sanderson

Destroy me, Jonathan. ~ C.D. Reiss

He was right that I was afraid. But I didn't think I was afraid of the truth. I was afraid of believing something that would destroy me if it turned out to be a lie. ~ Amy Harmon

She broke my heart. My mother broke my heart. If I love Rachel she'll have more power than both of them combined because this overwhelming pulse in my body...this overwhelming need to protect her and hold her close...
I nuzzle into her hair and close my eyes, inhaling the sweet scent of jasmine. I should let her go, let her go, just let her go. Walk away now. Hang on to what's left of my sanity.
But as Rachel presses tighter to me, I know I'm too far gone to stand a chance alone. I'm in love, f*cking in love, and I pray to the God that abandoned me years ago that He doesn't use this to destroy me. "I love you." ~ Katie McGarry

The anger welled inside me, with no where to go. I could feel it eating away at me. I knew if i didn't find a way to release it, it would destroy me. ~ Kami Garcia

For years, I have had fun but never let a man in. Greg, you have the power to not only get in but to destroy me if you ever want back out."
"I can't make you promises, Beauty . I can't sit here and tell you that I'm worth letting those walls down for. But, I can tell you that if the way I feel for you now keeps growing, there isn't an army strong enough to pull me out. ~ Harper Sloan

I dont want to destroy you - Della
Losing you would be the only thing that could destroy me - Woods ~ Abbi Glines

That traitorous bastard. The idiot who thinks he's won himself a pretty girl. He has no idea who she is. No idea what she'd about to become.
And if he thinks he's even remotely suited to match her, he's even more of an idiot than I gave him credit for. ~ Tahereh Mafi

People seldom realize that they tell lies with their lips and truths with their eyes all the time. ~ Tahereh Mafi

destroy me. love me. warp my image in photoshop with filter presets


push me off the brink of sanity. edit my sister sister fan fiction without my permish ~ Heiko Julien

I matter. My feelings deserve attention. My desires deserve fulfillment. My dreams count. I matter, not because I'm selfish, but because if I don't value my body, mind, and spirit, the world will destroy me. And when I do value myself, I am indestructible. ~ Toni Sorenson

I cannot afford to believe that freedom from intolerance is the right of only one particular group. And I cannot afford to choose between the fronts upon which I must battle these forces of discrimination, wherever they appear to destroy me. And when they appear to destroy me, it will not be long before they appear to destroy you. ~ Audre Lorde

A double-edged sword
One side destroys
One releases
I am your Gordian knot
Will you release or destroy me?
Follow truth and you shall:
Find me on water
Purify me through fire
Trapped by earth nevermore
Air will whisper to you
What spirit already knows:
That even shattered
anything is possible
If you believe
Then we shall both be free. ~ Kristin Cast

You are going to destroy me, you know that?' I knew. ~ Tarryn Fisher

Destiny urges me to a goal of which I am ignorant. Until that goal is attained I am invulnerable, unassailable. When Destiny has accomplished her purpose in me, a fly may suffice to destroy me. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte

I was being hated for about 40 or 50 years by the whole world, but it did not destroy me, and it did not ruin my health. And the reason is because I just did not answer them. I had my own life. ~ Yoko Ono

It is hard to meet a stranger. Even the greatest extravert meeting even the meekest stranger knows a certain dread, though he may not know he knows it. Will he make a fool of me wreck my image of myself invade me destroy me change me? Yes, that he will. There's the terrible thing: the strangeness of the stranger. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

It was a bad one, the Winter of 1933. Wading home that night through flames of snow, my toes burning, my ears on fire, the snow swirling around me like a flock of angry nuns, I stopped dead in my tracks. The time had come to take stock. Fair weather or foul, certain forces in the world were at work trying to destroy me. ~ John Fante

General Biassou is a simple, vulnerable man without much knowledge, and he is easily led astray by the scoundrels surrounding him. He has sworn eternal hatred for me, and for some time now, he has been trying to destroy me using whatever means he can. ~ Toussaint Louverture

Deep down, I know I'm heading for a heartache so severe it might just destroy me once and for all.
And yet, despite the fear, I'm not going to push it away.
Because how lucky would I be to fall in love with this man?
I don't think many people truly get to do that, even if it's all a lie in the end. ~ Karina Halle

It is time for us to fight, and we do so not because we seek the glory of men, but because the other options are worse. We follow the Codes not because they bring gain, but because we loathe the people we would otherwise become. We stand here on this battlefield alone because of who we are.
Death is the end of all men! What is the measure of him once he is gone? The wealth he accumulated and left for his heirs to squabble over? The glory he obtained,only to be passed on to those who slew him? The lofty positions he held through happenstance? No. We fight here because we understand. The end is the same. It is the path that separates men. When we taste that end, we will do so with our heads held high, eyes to the sun.
I am not ashamed of what I have become. Other men may debase themselves to destroy me. Let them have their glory. For I will retain mine! ~ Brandon Sanderson

Could I have made mistakes? One does not build cities if one is guided by doubt. But can one govern in absolute certainty? I know that my beliefs have elevated me, just as I know that the things I have rejected would have destroyed me. But the city ... it is collapsing before my ... have I become so convinced by my own beliefs that I have stopped seeing the truth? Perhaps. But Atlas is out there, and he aims to destroy me, and destroy my city. To question is to surrender. I will not question. ~ Andrew Ryan

What do you want?" Belbalm had asked her. Safety, comfort, to feel unafraid. I want to live to grow old, Alex thought as she pulled the curtains closed. I want to sit on my porch and drink foul-smelling tea and yell at passersby. I want to survive this world that keeps trying to destroy me. ~ Leigh Bardugo

I always assumed that the doubt would destroy me. But know I wonder if it's the opposite of doubt that's the dangerous thing - if instead, it's the things we're so sure of that have the power to undo us. ~ Kara Thomas

I am part man, and I notice women's breasts and thighs with the calculation of a man choosing a mistress ... but that is the artist and the analytical attitude toward the female body ... for I am more a woman; even as I long for full breasts and a beautiful body, so do I abhor the sensuousness which they bring ... I desire the things which will destroy me in the end... ~ Sylvia Plath

Those who intend to destroy me, underestimate my ability to regenerate. ~ Aleksandra Ninkovic

He's the one who holds all the power here. He could easily destroy me or make all my dreams come true, but in order for me to find out which, I have to let go of my control, something I've never done before. It terrifies me to hand all the parts of me over to him and trust that he'll take care of them. ~ E.K. Blair

O bid these strangers go ;
Turn to my lips till their cup overflow ;
Hurt me with kisses, kill me with desire,
Consume me and destroy me with the fire
Of bleeding passion straining at the heart,
Touched to the core by sweetnesses that smart ;
Bitten by fiery snakes, whose poisonous breath
Swoons in the midnight, and dissolves to death ! ~ Aleister Crowley

I love you the way a drowning man loves air. And it would destroy me to have you just a little. ~ Rae Carson

What are you doing to me, you plague of a girl?" he whispered.
"If I'm a plague, then you should keep your distance, unless you plan on being destroyed." The weapons still in her grasp, she shoved against his chest.
"No." His hands dropped to her waist. "Destroy me. ~ Renee Ahdieh

There is no world without you in it. Nothing. I'm not talking about despair. I've lost people. This isn't me being a child. There is one universe. Just one. And it's between us. If you destroy that universe, you destroy me. Do you understand what I'm saying? ~ C.D. Reiss

Loosing you would be the only thing that could destroy me ~ Abbi Glines

If it were nothing but sexual attraction I'm sure I would not suffer such unbearable humiliation. But I wanted so much more than her body. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I strip myself emotionally when I confess need – that I would be lost without you, that I am not necessarily the independent person I have tried to appear, but am a far less admirable weakling with little clue of life's course or meaning. When I cry and tell you things I trust you will keep for yourself, that would destroy me if others were to learn of them, when I give up the game of gazing seductively at parties and admit it's you I care about, I am stripping myself of a carefully sculpted illusion of invulnerability. I become as defenseless and trusting as the person in the circus trick, strapped to a board into which another is throwing knives to within inches of my skin, knives I have myself freely given. I allow you to see me humiliated, unsure of myself, vacillating, drained of self-confidence, hating myself and hence unable to convince you [should I need to] to do otherwise. I am weak when I have shown you my panicked face at three in the morning, anxious before existence, free of the blustering, optimistic philosophies I had proclaimed over dinner. I learn to accept the enormous risk that though I am not the confident pin-up of everyday life, though you have at hand an exhaustive catalogue of my fears and phobias, you may nevertheless love me. ~ Alain De Botton

There were also some cruel reviews by women, but the tone of the male reviewers, sometimes hysterical, was different. I have suffered, but I don't want to name names-but there have been men who have seemed to want to destroy me or my writing, men I don't even know. ~ Marguerite Young

I have nothing in me that you cannot break. I would let you destroy me, and then I would resurrect myself from my own ashes for the honor of being destroyed by you again. ~ Tiffany Reisz

Baby girl, you destroy me," he whispered against her lips. "You have to tell me if you don't want this because I'm holding on by a thread."
"Then let go," she whispered in reply. ~ Rachel Harris

Once I thought that to be human was the highest aim a man could have, but I see now that it was meant to destroy me. To-day I am proud to say that I am inhuman, that I belong not to men and governments, that I have nothing to do with creeds and principles. I have nothing to do with the creaking machinery of humanity - I belong to the earth! ~ Henry Miller

My mind is a warehouse of carefully organized human emotions.
I lock away the things that do not serve me. ~ Tahereh Mafi

I am creation's shadow. You cannot destroy me. That would destroy the world. ~ Terry Pratchett

A dozen candles burned themselves to death on the shelf before me. Each of my breaths made them tremble. To them, I was a behemoth, to frighten and destroy. And yet, if I strayed too close, they could destroy me. My invisible breath, the pulses of life that flowed in and out, could end them freely, while my fingers could not do the same without being repaid in pain.'"
"'I understood in a moment of stillness,'" Litima read. "'Those candle flames were like the lives of men. So fragile. So deadly. Left alone, they lit and warmed. Let run rampant, they would destroy the very things they were meant to illuminate. Embryonic bonfires, each bearing a seed of destruction so potent it could tumble cities and dash kings to their knees. In later years, my mind would return to that calm, silent evening, when I had stared at rows of living lights. And I would understand. To be given loyalty is to be infused like a gemstone, to be granted the frightful license to destroy not only one's self, but all within one's care. ~ Brandon Sanderson

It is hard because I love Cornettos, so that will always be a weakness, and I've realised that bread is my nemesis. I believe bread has been sent to destroy me to the core. ~ James Corden

Well, Vin says that there's something behind all this, right? Some evil force of doom or whatever? Well, if I were said force of doom, then I certainly wouldn't have used my powers to turn the land black. It just lacks flair. Red. Now, that would be an interesting color. Think of the possibilities
if the ash were red, the rivers would run like blood. Black is so monotonous that you can forget about it, but red
you'd always be thinking, 'Why, look at that. That hill is red. That evil force of doom trying to destroy me certainly has style. ~ Brandon Sanderson

Sir, can you hear me?" Another cry. But this time, a voice I don't detest.
"Sire, please, can you hear me-"
"I've been shot, Delalieu," I manage to say. I open my eyes. Look into his watery ones. "I haven't gone deaf. ~ Tahereh Mafi

If people love what I do, that's fantastic. And there's always going to be people who don't, and if I focus on that, then it'll destroy me. I have to just worry about my own opinion and the opinions of the people I'm working with and people who are close to me. Otherwise, it'll drive me crazy. ~ Emily Browning

I desire the things that will destroy me in the end. ~ Sylvia Plath

I'm beginning to feel as though we're in some kind of cocoon, I'm just afraid as to what we are going to emerge as. Will I fly away or will he destroy me. ~ Nicole T. Smith

Being in the public eye, there will always be negatives. Those dark aspects will always be there and, so too, those things that will try and tear you down, but I have made the choice not to engage with them. I'm not going to let them affect me or destroy me. ~ Rain Phoenix

Do you understand what it would do to me if someone got to you? ... It would destroy me if you or those babies were hurt, Brynna. You are necessary to my survival, goddamn it. ~ Kristen Proby

The baron had one hand pressed to the nape of his neck, and the chest of his shirt was speckled with drops of blood.
'Were you bitten?'
'Yes'
His face was pale, his lips colorless, and from them poked a pair of bloody red fangs - Taki's throat had been torn open.
'And that awoke it in you, too?'
D's ears caught a distant voice. *You were my only success.*
Taki's voice came back to him. *Save me D.*
D heard the blue voice.
'D - destroy me.'
'No one has hired me.'
'I'll be the client.'
'I see.'
For an instant, two streaks of light adorned the transparent morn. The light from the baron skimmed by D as the Hunter bent back far, imbedding itself in the floor, while D's blade pinned the Nobleman's chest to the wall. ~ Hideyuki Kikuchi

I like being on my own better than I like anything else, but I can't give up love. Maybe it's the tension between longing and aloneness that I need. My own funicular railway, holding in balance the two things most likely to destroy me. ~ Jeanette Winterson

When I was eight, I found my best friend. Then, one day, I came home and she'd changed. During my absence, she'd become the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen in my life and I fell in love with her so completely that the very idea of ever being without her became an impossibility I couldn't stand. That same girl has always been the only one to ever hold my heart in her hands. She's the only one who can both build me and destroy me if she wishes and I wouldn't change that for anything. I can't live without her." ~ Isaiah ~ Airicka Phoenix

There was something about my face,she said, that she couldn't stand. Something about my eyes, the way I looked at her, the fact I even existed. She'd always tell me to stop looking at her. She'd always scream it. Like I might attack her. Stop looking at me, she'd scream. You just stop looking at me, she'd scream.
She put my hand in the fire once.
Just to see if it would burn, she said. Just to check if it was a regular hand, she said.
I was 6 years old then.
I remember because it was my birthday. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Because I want to destroy beautiful things before they can destroy me. ~ Karina Halle

Luke, you have to know, it won't be like the other guys. If it's you, it'll be worse." My voice went softer, lower, barely a whisper. "If this goes bad, it'll destroy me. ~ Kristen Ashley

I am the keeper of the library, Matthew. Without it I am nothing. Were it to be destroyed again, it would destroy me as well. ~ Neil Gaiman

The devil sought to destroy me and discredit my testimony. But God wanted me where I would testify to others about his saving power. ~ Shirley Corder

I will know that only those with inferior ability can always be at their best, and I am not inferior. There will be days when I must constantly struggle against forces which would tear me down. Those such as despair and sadness are simple to recognize but there are others which approach with a smile and the hand of friendship and they can also destroy me. Against them, too, I must never relinquish control - ~ Og Mandino

Mikhail Saakashvili would do everything within his power to destroy me, first as a politician and then as a person. All government authorities, including the police, the military and the courts, are controlled by those in power. ~ Irakli Okruashvili

I realized I'd been trying to protect myself from the agony of losing you. Trying to keep myself from loving you so it wouldn't destroy me. Except it was too late. I was already in love with you. I had been for a long time. Obsession, addiction, love - it's all the same thing. I can't live without you, Nora. Losing you would destroy me. I can survive anything but that. ~ Anna Zaires

Well, I looked my demons in the eyes
laid bare my chest, said 'Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me. ~ Ray Lamontagne

I have reveled in my littleness and irresponsibility. It has relieved me of the harassing desire to live, I feel content to live dangerously, indifferent to my fate; I have discovered I am a fly, that we are all flies, that nothing matters. It's a great load off my life, for I don't mind being such a micro-organism - to me the honour is sufficient of belonging to the universe - such a great universe, so grand a scheme of things. Not even Death can rob me of that honour. For nothing can alter the fact that I have lived; I have been I, if for ever so short a time. And when I am dead, the matter which composes my body is indestructible - and eternal, so that come what may to my "Soul," my dust will always be going on, each separate atom of me playing its separate part - I shall still have some sort of a finger in the Pie. When I am dead, you can boil me, burn me, drown me, scatter me - but you cannot destroy me: my little atoms would merely deride such heavy vengeance. Death can do no more than kill you. ~ W.N.P. Barbellion

The game is a dominance game called I Must Impress This Woman. Failure makes the active player play harder. Wear a hunched back or a withered arm; you will then experience the invisibility of the passive player. I'm never impressed -- no woman ever is -- it's just a cue that you like me and I'm supposed to like that. If you really like me, maybe I can get you to stop. Stop; I want to talk to you! Stop; I want to see you! Stop; I'm dying and disappearing!
SHE: Isn't it just a game?
HE: Yes, of course.
SHE: And if you play the game, it means you like me, doesn't it?
HE: Of course.
SHE: Then if it's just a game and you like me, you can stop playing. Please stop.
HE: No.
SHE: Then I won't play.
HE: Bitch! You want to destroy me. I'll show you. (He plays harder)
SHE: All right. I'm impressed.
HE: You really are sweet and responsive after all. You've kept your femininity. You're not one of those hysterical feminist bitches who wants to be a man and have a penis. You're a woman.
SHE: Yes. (She kills herself) ~ Joanna Russ

I didn't realize that pretending to be this 'Hills Heidi,' this spoiled rich girl who I wasn't, would almost destroy me. ~ Heidi Montag

( ... )I decided to let myself drift with the tide, to make not the least resistance to fate, no matter in what form it presented itself. Nothing that happened to me thus far had been sufficient to destroy me; nothing had been destroyed but my illusions( ... ) ~ Henry Miller

To destroy that which seeks to destroy me, God invites me to stand against it until it stands down and then falls down. ~ Craig D. Lounsbrough

Alone with myself and my talent, I chose it in some way I never had before. I chose myself also. The person I was and had been all along, the one who had not belonged to the place where she was born, nor to the places she found along the way, the one always under the mask, here she came out and breathed the air and felt at home. I had always believed that to be this person might destroy me or the world, and so as the world seemed to end, this made the end of the world seem nearly a paradise. ~ Alexander Chee

Loupe, are you listening to me? I am your husband, it is my job to protect you. I cannot do that, if you insist on ignoring me and engaging some madwoman-"
"You know what, my darlings?" Loupe continued loudly, still looking at the pups. "I almost didn't call for you. I love you so much, it would destroy me if anything happened to you. But," she said clearly, "then I realized that trying to protect you from all danger would only keep you weak. I would much rather you grow to be big, strong, confident wolves. And I never want you to be afraid. Of anyone."
There was a long pause as she continued to ruffle the pups' fur and make baby noises at them.
Finally, Etienne knelt beside her and sighed. "I'm an adult, you know," he muttered. "You could have just said that to me."
Loupe raised an eyebrow at him, but didn't say anything.
-Etienne and Loupe ~ Jennifer Blackstream

I am the Vampire Lestat. I'm immortal more or less. The light of the sun, the sustained heat of an intense fire-these things might destroy me. But then again, they might not. ~ Anne Rice

I vowed I wouldn't ever let anyone destroy me again. I was going to work at it every day, so hard that I would be the toughest guy in the world. By the end of practice, I wanted to be physically tired, to know that I'd been through a workout. If I wasn't tired, I must have cheated somehow, so I stayed a little longer. ~ Dan Gable

The goal of life is not the absence of pain. It's the presence of glory. God's glory. And sometimes that comes most vividly with pain. Not only have I learned that pain doesn't kill; I have learned that I will never lose or be betrayed by the one thing with absolute power to destroy me - God Himself. ~ Beth Moore

I hate that I got dealt shitty parents! I hate how you make me feel like scum! I hate that you're always running away from me! And I hate that I ever fucking gave you the power to destroy me! ~ Adriana Law

Even though trauma has a way of
becoming the wallpaper of my head,

watch me drag the art
out of my suffering.

Watch me plant seeds down my spine
and bloom into a garden of poetry

from every horrible thing that has ever
happened to me, all the nights my voice
turned to cement and I couldn't say anything-

Watch me build an empire from the ashes
of everything that tried to destroy me. ~ Blythe Baird

I destroyed myself because I thought no one will destroy me that way but I guess I was wrong ... they're stonger. ~ Marivil

I love you so much I ache with it," he whispers as if each word is painful to admit. "And I'm afraid you'll destroy me before all is said and done. ~ Kristen Proby

I looked up, and I really wished I hadn't. My obsession with those eyes was playing a taunting game with me. His mesmerising gaze was like none other I had ever experienced in my life. It was almost as if he could reach into my soul and pick out all of my sins. Sins I didn't want him to know about. Sins that would ultimately destroy me if they ever got out. If he knew my sins, he wouldn't be kneeling beside me with my hand in his. He wouldn't be sharing with me that look of promises to come. He would be disgusted with me. I was disgusted with me. ~ Jaimie Roberts

Good God, I have taken leave of my senses. I never thank Delalieu. I've likely given the poor man a heart attack. ~ Tahereh Mafi

Tall, narrow, and grand, the first house was a Victorian. Once loved by a family, it ended up a college rental. Dylan took it from rundown and abused to grand again.
"Could you see yourself living here?" he asked, wrapping his arms around me from behind.
"No," I said softly.
"Good. Me either, but I'd have moved in tomorrow if you said yes."
Squirming around to face him, I sighed. "You're so whipped."
"I know, but only when it comes to you."
"It's only fair since you own my heart and could destroy me if you wanted."
"Could, but never will," he said, taking my hand. "Let's go look at the midcentury house."
"What if I don't like that one either?"
Dylan opened the car door and shrugged. "Plenty of houses in Ellsberg that need love. We'll find one and make it ours. ~ Bijou Hunter

Stella expected to see fire in Mr. Spencer's eyes, fire like the flames that had made tinder of his house. Instead his eyes were soft, gentle, and brown like the earth. "I have to show them they didn't destroy me," he said simply. ~ Sharon M. Draper

There'll be a whole lot of things you ain't gonna want to do, but you'll have to do in this life just so you can survive.
'Now, I don't like the idea of what Charlie Simms did to you no more than your Uncle Hammer, but I had to weigh the hurt of what happened to you to what could've happened if I went after him. If I'd-a gone after Charlie Simms and given him a good thrashin', like I felt like doing, the hurt to all of us would've been a whole lot more than the hurt to you. So I let it be. I don't like letting it be, but I can live with that decision.
'But there are other things, Cassie, that if I'd let be, they'd eat away at me and destroy me in the end. And it's the same with you, baby. There are things you can't back down on. Things you gotta take a stand on, but it's up to you to decide what them things are.
'You have to demand respect in this world. Ain't nobody just gonna hand it to you. How you carry yourself, what you stand for, that's how you gain respect. But little one, ain't nobody's respect worth more than your own. You understand that?'
'Now, there ain't no sense going around being mad. You clear your head so you can think sensibly. Then I want you to think real hard about whether Lillian Jean's worth taking a stand about. But keep in mind that Lillian Jean probably won't be the last white person to think you this way. ~ Mildred D. Taylor

She was not an angel. She hadn't come to save me. Maybe she'd come to destroy me. Still, I wanted her. ~ Chelsea Pitcher

Make it a human war,' she said fiercely. 'You're the first not to be deceived by my looks. Oh God! The boredom of the chivalrous knights and their milk-maid passion for the fairy tale princess. But I'm not like that ... inside. I'm not. I'm not. Never. Make it a savage war between us. Don't win me ... destroy me! ~ Alfred Bester