Hope And Despair Quotes

Remember, you are never alone in this world. Never. ~ J.U. Scribe

Pastor Smith did not have the religious constitution needed to provide salvation for any of us who'd had a hand in this tragic event. We had put on the armour of God, and there was no undoing what we had done. My faith, my belief in myself as a good citizen, everything I had thought was truth was scattered to the wind, and no one on this earth could put that to rights. Things weren't as simple as living and dying. I understood that now. ~ Cheryl R Cowtan

The inaugural morning at Merston High was officially over. It was no longer a mysterious place in Melody's imagination, filled with endless possibilities and hooks on which to hang hopes for a better tomorrow. It was completely - boringly - normal. Like meeting an online crush after months of e-flirting, the reality didn't live up to the fantasy. It was dull, predictable, and way more attractive in the photos. ~ Lisi Harrison

(Such a life)engaged gross quantities of hope and despair and set them wildly side by side, like a Third World country of the heart. ~ Lorrie Moore

You have to use your failures as stepping stones to success. You have to maintain a fine balance between hope and despair. In the end it's all a question of balance. ~ Rohinton Mistry

A picture's worth a thousand words. But a single word can make you think of over a thousand pictures in your mind, over a thousand moments, a thousand memories. ~ Rebecca McNutt

As young one we learned life is a opportunity and when we grow older we learned something more precious death is a gift ~ Dondy Subingsubing

Sometimes I can't see the sun. ~ Randolph Randy Camp

He couldn't look back at the children. He couldn't think of it. All he could do was watch the eyes of his wife.
He pulled her to him, her body soft, her skin warm. She was life, she was his. He took her lips and tasted his freedom once more. The subtle tenderness. The hope hidden in joined breath. He took it into himself. Soaking in the peace that came with it.
And even as the rustling began he felt still, he felt calm. Scratching and scrapping within the stones, and the rustle of wings. But all Eli knew was the nature of love. ~ Rachel A. Marks

And then he lifted his eyes from the chair to his bed. If this was his imagination, his imagination was glorious. Margaret lay on his coverlet, stretched out full length. She still wore a corset and petticoats, but they'd been hiked up so that he could see where her garters tied at the knees. She crooked one finger at him and smiled.

"Margaret. What are you doing here?"

"I," she said, "have been procuring my future."

His mind went blank. He didn't know how to take it. She'd decided to have him, after all. She'd realized she didn't need him, not one bit. His head pounded. His heart swelled in a mix of hope and despair.

"I want you."

Hope. Hope. It was all hope. He took a careful step towards her.

"Wait. There's a condition."

"You know," Ash said, his throat closing, "that if you are half-naked on my bed, all conditions will be met. Instantly."

"Ah, but this is one of the conditions I did not deliver to Lord Lacy-Follett earlier today."

If he'd been overwhelmed by her appearance before, he was stunned now. "You talked to Lacy-Follett? You cannot be serious."

"Oh, but I am. I had to renegotiate, after I'd heard what you had done. I had been so blinded by my loyalty to my brothers that I could not see that I owed loyalty to you, as well. I was wrong. I love you, Ash."

He swallowed.

She smiled up at him. "I love that you make me feel as if I'm the onl ~ Courtney Milan

An Indigo Bunting let out a trill, a cheery song, reminding me of better days, of hope and happiness and all the lofty promises a blue canary can sing about. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath of the heady morning air. Looking within myself, I searched for the man I once was. ~ Cheryl R Cowtan

We must choose our personal viewpoint. We can embrace a sense of weighty heaviness that comes from knowing that our fate is one of deterioration and death, and our suffering is interminable. Alternatively, we can choose to believe in the unbearable lightness of our being and embrace a world of high-minded thoughts and ideals. The decisions we make are significant regardless if we only have one life to live. We weave our life story out of the choices that we make when confronted with the inevitable opportunities to experience love and friendship and heartache and suffering. During our life, we encounter goodness and evilness, and hope and despair. We must decide whether we accept reality. Alternatively, do we seek to escape the pain that comes from acknowledging the paucity of human existence? ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

As usual, Junko thought about Jack London's 'To Build a Fire.' It was the story of a man traveling alone through the snowy Alaskan interior and his attempts to light a fire. He would freeze to death unless he could make it catch. The sun was going down. Junko hadn't read much fiction, but that one short story she had read again and again, ever since her teacher had assigned it as an essay topic during summer vacation of her first year in high school. The scene of the story would always come vividly to mind as she read. She could feel the man's fear and hope and despair as if they were her own; she could sense the very pounding of his heart as he hovered on the brink of death. Most important of all, though, was the fact that the man was fundamentally longing for death. She knew that for sure. She couldn't explain how she knew, but she knew it from the start. Death was really what he wanted. He knew that it was the right ending for him. And yet he had to go on fighting with all his might. He had to fight against an overwhelming adversary in order to survive. What most shook Junko was this deep-rooted contradiction.
The teacher ridiculed her view. 'Death is really what he wanted? That's a new one for me! And strange! Quite 'original,' I'd have to say.' He read her conclusion aloud before the class, and everybody laughed.
But Junko knew. All of them were wrong. Otherwise how could the ending of the story be so quiet and beautiful? ~ Haruki Murakami

Having my defenses down felt good. I didn't realize how much energy it took to carry my armor. My wall of protection kept bad stuff out, but it also kept good stuff from coming in. Guarding my heart is important, but not at the expense of being known by people who love me. ~ Shauna L. Hoey

Katie soon learned there was a problem with hope. ~ Carla H. Krueger

Sometimes I wish I could go back in time, and be the one who ended up in that accident, completely dead ... but you know what? It wouldn't change anything. All I can do now that they're dead is to go through the actions of living without really living, and hope it improves someday. ~ Rebecca McNutt

Before the crisis, my life moved along like a well-planned play. I showed up and acted my part while the script directed the flow. The devastation demanded I grieve while the play of my life continued around me. I wished I could stop the spinning stage long enough to catch my breath. ~ Shauna L. Hoey

You can choose to stay strong and keep moving on or you can run, and in the end still make a U-turn.. ~ Chinonye J. Chidolue

In Hanover Park they highlighted the terrible plight of backyard dwellers and the fact that year after year nothing has been done to help you: the hope and despair you all live with every day. ~ Mangosuthu Buthelezi

Acceptance is a gift that helps you to skip forward and live in the present. Everyone needs a chance to be fulfilled with acceptance which is the impetus to heal old wounds. Sometimes you meet someone and you can skip forward because of the greeting, the acceptance, and the goodbye. Say hello to a stranger. They will greet you with a smile almost every time. ~ Brian Michael Good

In the dull, persistent beat of her heart, she hears the rhythm of hope. It is faint and thin as a thread, but it is there. ~ Libbie Hawker

If you but knew the meaning of His Love, hope and despair would be impossible. ~ Foundation For Inner Peace

To die,
so young to die.
No, no, not I,
I love the warm sunny skies,
light, song, shining eyes,
I want no war, no battle cry,
No, no, not I. ~ Hannah Senesh

There are moments that define a person's whole life. Moments in which everything they are and everything they may possibly become balance on a single decision. Life and death, hope and despair, victory and failure teeter precariously on the decision made at that moment. These are moments ungoverned by happenstance, untroubled by luck. These are the moments in which a person earns the right to live, or not. ~ Jonathan Maberry

If you knew that hope and despair were paths to the same destination, which would you choose? ~ Robert Breault

She wanted to say more, say the words they were forbidden to say, but she didn't - just looked at him silently and thought them, wondering if anyone had thought these words before in the Silent City. If they had thought them like this: with equal hope and despair. I love you. I love you. I love you. ~ Cassandra Clare

Bad horror stories concern themselves with six ways to kill a vampire, and graphic accounts of how the rats ate Billy's genitalia. Good horror stories are about larger things. About hope and despair. About love and hatred, lust and jealousy. About friendship and adolescence and sexuality and rage, loneliness and alienation and psychosis, courage and cowardice, the human mind and body and spirit under stress and in agony, the human heart in unending conflict with itself. Good horror stories make us look at our reflections in dark distorting mirrors, where we glimpse things that disturb us, things that we did not really want to look at. Horror looks into the shadows of the human soul, at the fears and rages that live within us all.
But darkness is meaningless without light, and horror is pointless without beauty. The best horror stories are stories first and horror second, and however much they scare us, they do more than that as well. They have room in them for laughter as well as screams, for triumph and tenderness as well as tragedy. They concern themselves not simply with fear, but with life in all its infinite variety, with love and death and birth and hope and lust and transcendence, with the whole range of experiences and emotions that make up the human condition. Their characters are people, people who linger in our imagination, people like those around us, people who do not exist solely to be the objects of violent slaughter in chapter four. The best horror stori ~ George R.R. Martin

The power of gratitude is everlasting blessings. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

What we call our despair is often only the painful eagerness of unfed hope. ~ George Eliot

For tho' we know what we ought to be; & what it would be very sweet & beautiful to be; yet we can't be it. That is most sad, too. Life is a long Dardenelles, My Dear Madam, the shores whereof are bright with flowers, which we want to pluck, but the bank is too high; & so we float on & on, hoping to come to a landing-place at last . . . ~ Herman Melville

A new star has been born and Vera's performance brings alive the desolate life of O'Neil's young heroine in a natural talent that is so fresh and yet so ageless. ~ Rajiv Kapoor

Darkness is part of this life, but so is light. ~ Millie Florence

Feeling hopeless? But are you even there yet? ~ Chinonye J. Chidolue

Hope is the confidence of brighter tomorrows. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Will you keep going when you don't know why? When you can't get any answers that would make the pain go away, will you still say, 'My Lord,' even though his ways are not clear to you? Will you keep going-with all the grace and grit and faith you can muster-and live in hope that one day God will set everything right. Will you trust that God is good? ... Ultimately, the choice everyone faces is the choice between hope and despair. Jesus says, 'Choose hope.' ~ John Ortberg

She could not see how much there was to live for, that she was young and that one could build anew upon the ashes of failure ~ Paul Gallico

I just wish moments weren't so fleeting!' Isaac called to the man on the roof, 'They pass so quickly!'
'Fleeting?!' responded the tilling man, 'Moments? They pass quickly?! ... Why, once a man is finished growing, he still has twenty years of youth. After that, he has twenty years of middle age. Then, unless misfortune strikes, nature gives him twenty thoughtful years of old age. Why do you call that quickly?' And with that, the tilling man wiped his sweaty brow and continued tilling; and the dejected Isaac continued wandering.
'Stupid fool!' Isaac muttered quietly to himself as soon as he was far enough away not to be heard. ~ Roman Payne

When you're in a Slump, you're not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done. ~ Dr. Seuss

Isn't it important for your friends close by and far away to know the high cost of these insights? Wouldn't they find it a source of consolation to see that light and darkness, hope and despair, love and fear are never very far from each other, and that spiritual freedom often requires a fierce spiritual battle? ~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

The secret of survival was to balance hope and despair ~ Rohinton Mistry

Hope is the damnedest of all feckless emotions. ~ Noorilhuda

Sometimes your body aches and you feel like lead and it's easier to pull your covers all the way over your head and pray that you never wake up but it's very important that you do. So if you don't feel beautiful when you open your eyes I hope this reminds you that I think you are. Just try to remember this too In the moments you feel alone and every mountain is too great for all the answers left unknown and convinced it is always too late. There is happiness in this life one day these troubles will fade all your strength is in the skyline no matter how heavy your heart weighs. And some days it seems hope and despair take turns but despite all our sadness the sun always returns. I just wanted you to know that I'll never care. How far you push me away Because when I told you that I would stay, I meant it. And a little damaged But you're not hopeless I know who you are. I love who you are And that's why I'll stay. ~ Courtney Peppernell

Hope is a joyful soul. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

The distance between truth and lies is integrity,
between need and want is contentment,
between fate and chance is will,
between vice and virtue is intention,
between faith and doubt is conviction,
between joy and grief is happiness,
between strength and weakness is tenacity,
between action and fear is courage,
between hope and despair is expectation,
between wealth and poverty is diligence,
between friendship and humility is kindness,
between life and death is existence,
between eternity and time is reality,
between war and peace is diplomacy,
between God and intelligence is wisdom,
between knowledge and ignorance is education,
between sin and righteousness is desire,
between God and religion is faith,
between blessings and curses is obedience,
between faith and science is God,
between good and evil is light,
between light and darkness is sight,
between God and Lucifer is love,
and between Heaven and Hell is faith. ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

Hope is the supernatural grace of God for
survival of hard times. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Nevertheless, in this sea of human wretchedness and malice there bloomed at times compassion, as a pale flower blooms in a putrid marsh. ~ Henryk Sienkiewicz

When expectations delay for too long, doubt draw nearer in haste and patience goes farther ~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

I never imagined what it would feel like if hope and despair waged a war inside my mind. But I supposed it was something like the battle raging inside me in that moment. ~ Lindsay A. Franklin

It struck me tonight how music mirrors life. Fleeting ephemeral moments, made up of beauty, sadness, joy, hope and despair. Melodies which are written in both major and minor keys. Flowing and fleeting. You can't hold onto it, or keep it from changing. Our emotions possess the evanescence of a note. ~ Virginia Burges

May you live life to the fullness. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. ~ Martin Luther

I have wept for my nation until I am out of tears. Not from a personal depression, but with the deepest grief and sorrow as one might have for a dying loved one who lays helplessly in the hospital. The patient in this case is our nation, America, but she is not so much ill as she is being euthanized...And so, being presently out of tears for the moment, I take up the pen. ~ Daniel Rundquist

You get to the point where you're just empty. Empty of feelings and thoughts. Of bone and flesh and blood. Empty of hope and despair. You aren't dead. But you aren't living, either. ~ Barbara Nickless

The pain and the sadness that you encounter when you lose something important is only a mix of one emotion: guilt. When you feel it once, you learn from it. When you live it twice, you mourn in silence. But if you experience it thrice, you will break, shattering like a frail piece of glass. But if you manage to survive, then you will only be a shadow of your soul: a broken doll. Because we are nothing more than mere puppets of Destiny, holding tightly on the string that keeps us from being consumed by the darkness. The string that will eventually lead humankind to its pinnacle.
A simple red string named Hope. ~ Giou Yomi

To love is a dare,
when hope and despair,
are gates upon it hinges. ~ Lang Leav

Between hope and despair treads a life without love! ~ Manoj Vaz

My sister's looking off to the side so half her face is in shadow and her smile is neatly cut in half. It's like one of those Greek tragedy masks in a textbook that's half one idea and half the opposite. Light and dark. Hope and despair. Laughter and sadness. Trust and loneliness. ~ Haruki Murakami

We cry from pain, from loss, and from loneliness, but mostly we cry because we still have hope, and because we can still find joy even on the darkest and coldest of winter nights. ~ Courtney M. Privett

In times of difficulty, say to yourself, ' I will not give up, I shall prevail. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

One act of random kindness is enough to transform despair into hope. ~ Charles F. Glassman

Black and white are the colors of photography. To me they symbolize the alternatives of hope and despair to which mankind is forever subjected. ~ Robert Frank

Django: "Would you buy it if I told you that it's always darkest before the dawn? Or that there's a light at the end of the tunnel? Course there's always a possibility that it's an oncoming train. But still. ~ Zoey Dean

Hope is confidence. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

In young, childish, ignorant souls there is constantly this blind trust in some unshapen chance: it is as hard to a boy or girl to believe that a great wretchedness will actually befall them as to believe that they will die. ~ George Eliot

Hope is an act of faith. Great faith, great hope. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Hope and despair ignore one another's cries. ~ Mason Cooley

Avoid people who hurt from an impulse. I mean people who have this tendency to relish their capacity to hurt the good souls of this world, and who after hurting, wake up the next day without a trace of despondent brooding, and then move on with life never thinking that they should show some remorse or try to repent. ~ Janvier Chouteu-Chando

You should expect little or nothing from Wall Street stock pickers who hope to be more accurate than the market in predicting the future of prices. And you should not expect much from pundits making long-term forecasts. ~ Daniel Kahneman

It was an image Melody would never forget. Or was it the emotions the image conjured - hope, excitement, and fear of the unknown, all three tightly braided together, creating a fourth emotion that was impossible to define. She was getting a second chance at happiness and it tickled like swallowing fifty fuzzy caterpillars. ~ Lisi Harrison

No matter how hard you try to fit the pieces together, sometimes it's beyond your control, so sit back and trust in his plans. ~ Tilicia Haridat

How about we just be Haven and Carmine?" she suggested. "We don't know the ending, but we can always hope for the best."
"I like that," he said. "Besides, there's a reason we don't know how the story ends."
"Why?"
"Because it doesn't. ~ J.M. Darhower

It is my job to create universes, as the basis of one novel after another. And I have to build them in such a way that they do not fall apart two days later.
Or at least that's what my editors hope.
However, I will reveal a secret to you:
I like to build universes which do fall apart. I like to see them unglued, and I like to see how how the characters in the novel cope with this problem.
I have a scret love of chaos. There should be more of it. ~ Philip K. Dick

hope is a good thing, and good things never die! ~ Stephen King

You know, I've learned that you can't make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them, hope they panic, and give in. ~ Allison Morgan

If you trust me at all, if you want to listen to me at all..but you certainly don't have to…speaking from experience, I can tell you that things change. You can believe me, you don't have to. They probably won't change unless you make them. The best way to change something that's around you, something you don't like, is to change yourself. And I don't think you want other people changing you, I think the only person that can change you is yourself. So if you ain't happy, if you're reading magazines about generation x-ers and thinking 'yeah, I'm one of them', well fuck that. Don't let anyone tell you who you are. No, no. No one can tell me who I am. I can tell you who I am, but that would be a long story. I could tell you who I am and it wouldn't fit in a Rolling Stone. It wouldn't fit in a video…it's my life, it's your life. You're the only one who knows who you are. I hope you know who you are, figure it out. Cause you are somebody. And I'm probably stating the obvious, but I just thought I'd do it anyway. So if you feel like you've got a piece of duct tape on your mouth, if you feel like you can't speak, take it off, speak up, speak your mind, shout it out,let em hear, shout it out. ~ Eddie Vedder

How could I known then that failure then that failure of ambition is like a long lingering death and that disappoint with your life never goes away? It only grows stronger with the passage of time as the clock ticks off the remaining days of your life, and any residual, hope slips like sand through arthritic fingers. ~ Peter May

I was a very introverted individual and this became an important outlet for me to express myself, to communicate, to take positions, make statements, take a stand and so forth. But I never really thought I had much a future at all So the thing that I had to do was to really go inward and really work super hard in the hope that someday it would pay off. And in using that term I don't mean necessarily money, but just the fact that I would have more depth and dimension both as a human being and as an artist. ~ Ed Paschke

When I examined my own life, I realized that I had been standing at the foot of my mother's casket for 35 years, grieving her loss in so many ways in my daily life. I needed to reframe this challenging life event," admits Dr. Williams. "I reframed it to view my life as a train ride upon which my mother is with me. I hope I am taking her to places that surprise her and places she envisioned her children would go. Today she lives with me in a positive way. ~ Nathaniel J. Williams

As for what motivated me, it is quite simple; I would hope that in the eyes of some people it might be sufficient in itself. It was curiosity – the only kind of curiosity, in any case, that is worth acting upon with a degree of obstinacy: not the curiosity that seeks to assimilate what it is proper for one to know, but that which enables one to get free of oneself. After all, what would be the value of the passion for knowledge if it resulted only in a certain amount of knowledgeableness and not, in one way or another and to the extent possible, in the knower's straying afield of himself? There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently that one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all. People will say, perhaps, that these games with oneself would better be left backstage; or, at best, that they might properly form part of those preliminary exercises that are forgotten once they have served their purpose. But, then, what is philosophy today – philosophical activity, I mean – if it is not the critical work that thought brings to bear on itself? In what does it consist, if not in the endeavour to know how and to what extent it might be possible to think differently, instead of legitimating what is already known? ~ Michel Foucault

The wind changes direction within an instant and contains within it knowledge that can take away a life or spare it, as fate dictates. The wind likes you and fate will be kind, you just have to have hope. ~ Tami Egonu - A Rhapsody Of Dream

Like a flower, bloom with all your love and power. ~ Debasish Mridha

Silence comes in two varieties: One that nourishes and comforts; another that chokes, smothers, and isolates. Solitary confinement is the worst kind of imprisonment we can inflict on fellow humans, and if you are forced to keep silent about some dark secret, you live in solitary confinement. Without the bridge of communication connecting you to other human beings, you can't share your burdens, can't receive comfort, can't confirm that you still belong. Silence is the abyss that separates you from hope. ~ Martha Beck

Don Quixote: I hope to add some measure of grace to the world.

Aldonza: The world's a dungheap and we are maggots that crawl on it!

Don Quixote: My lady knows better in her heart. ~ Dale Wasserman

In brief, we who write are all in the same boat, as if we are survivors of torpedoes, and we hope to reach the shores of thought with strength for more activity. ~ Mary Ritter Beard

A life passed amid gangsters, thieves, smugglers, and gamblers had granted Amelia an unerring nose for greed, vanity, and other assorted venal characteristics, and in Miss Sparrow, she smelled rancid pride combined with the bitter char of unrequited love. She smelled the lemon tang of loneliness mingling with despair. Just under Priscilla Sparrow's skin, Amelia could tell, a rosemary blast of judiciousness rippled, followed by the must decay of jealousy and a lingering note of envy - in short (and in spite of all of Miss Sparrow's better attempts with Dick Crane), the odors of a lifelong spinster. ~ Tiffany Baker

One could not stand and watch very long without being philosophical, without beginning to deal in symbols and similes, and to hear the hog-squeal of the universe ... Each of them had an individuality of his own, a will of his own, a hope and a heart's desire; each was full of self-confidence, of self-importance, and a sense of dignity. And trusting and strong in faith he had gone about his business, the while a black shadow hung over him, and a horrid Fate in his pathway. Now suddenly it had swooped upon him, and had seized him by the leg. Relentless, remorseless, all his protests, his screams were nothing to it. It did its cruel will with him, as if his wishes, his feelings, had simply no existence at all; it cut his throat and watched him gasp out his life. ~ Upton Sinclair

When I'm in pain and grief and despair, my throat is clenched and my heart hurts. ~ Alanis Morissette

If all else fails, we then factor (fall) into our equation. And pray hard, someone factors (catching us) into theirs. ~ Noor Iskandar

Stop searching for that perfect person you hope for. Stop searching for someone who would meet the standards you set as spouse material, instead love the one who's already next to you, who has always been there for you, and never done you wrong. Perfection doesn't exist in anyone, including you. ~ John Yang Aka Private83

When I am sad and wearyWhen I think all hope has goneWhen I walk along High HolbornI think of you with nothing on ~ Adrian Mitchell

I hope some historian will confirm that I was the first cartoonist to use the word 'booger' in a newspaper comic strip. ~ Bill Watterson

LOST is often lauded as one of the best fantasy dramas in television history, as well as one of the most cryptic and - occasionally – maddening. But confirmation of just how important it is came with an almost unbelievable communiqué from the White House last week. President Obama's office reassured Lost fans that the commander in chief wouldn't move his yearly state of the union address from late January to a date that would coincide with the premiere episode of the show's sixth and final season.
That's right. Obama might have had vital information to impart upon the American people about health care, the war in Afghanistan, the financial crisis – things that, you know, might affect real lives.
But the most important thing was that his address didn't clash with a series in which a polar bear appears on a tropical island.
After extensive lobbying by the ABC network, the White House surrendered. Obama's press secretary promised: "I don't foresee a scenario in which millions of people who hope to finally get some conclusion with Lost are pre-empted by the president. ~ Ben East

There's a long road of suffering ahead of you. But don't lose courage. You've already escaped the gravest danger: selection. So now, muster your strength, and don't lose heart. We shall all see the day of liberation. Have faith in life. Above all else, have faith. Drive out despair, and you will keep death away from yourselves. Hell is not for eternity. And now, a prayer - or rather, a piece of advice: let there be comradeship among you. We are all brothers, and we are all suffering the same fate. The same smoke floats over all our heads. Help one another. It is the only way to survive. ~ Elie Wiesel

That glittering hope is immemorial and beckons many men to their undoing. ~ Euripides

What was the power that induced strong soldiers to put off their jackets and shirts, and present their hands to be tied up, and tortured for hours, it might be, under the scourge, with an air of ready volition? The moral coercion of despair; the result of an unconscious calculation of chances that satisfies them that it is ultimately better to do all that, bad as it is, than try the alternative. These unconscious calculations are going on every day with each of us, and the results embody themselves in our lives; and no one knows that there has been a process and a balance struck, and that what they see, and very likely blame, is by the fiat of an invisible but quite irresistible power. ~ J. Sheridan Le Fanu

And all of the late, late-night talks, when you're not stoned, but you're so tired you might as well be, when you just sit there glowing with warmth, and all of those things that you really hope for come out, and you connect with each other on such deep levels that, when you think about it the next day, you wonder if it was real - if the others felt it too. ~ Steven Brust

Will we let ourselves become a Church that calls and welcomes sinners with open arms, that gives courage and hope, or are we a Church closed in on herself? Are we a Church where the love of God dwells, where one cares for the other, where one prays for the other?
A final question: what can I, a weak fragile sinner, do? God says to you, Do not be afraid of holiness; do not be afraid to aim high, to let yourself be loved and purified by God; do not be afraid to let yourself be guided by the Holy Spirit. Let us be infected by the holiness of God. Every Christian is called to sanctity...; and sanctity does not consist especially in doing extraordinary things, but in allowing God to act. It is the meeting of our weakness with the strength of his grace, it is saving faith in his action that allows us to live in charity, to do everything with joy and humility, for the glory of God and as a service to our neighbor. ~ Pope Francis

Do you know what I see when I look at you?"
Max shook his head fervently. "I'd rather not know - "
"I see a man who wants so much to be better, who regrets the decisions he made, who wants to make amends and move on with his life. I see a man terrified to take a chance, to trust, but desperate to do so. I see a man who's fractured, but trying, I see hope. ~ Sophie Jackson

Publishing your writing is a bewildering mix of emotions somewhere between parental angst and walking down a public beach wearing only a thong. [scrub all you want that mental picture isn't going anywhere] You feel all the pride and joy as well as the fear and trepidation that come with putting your child out into the world. At the same time you've exposed a part of yourself that is normally private and while you hope people will appreciate it, there is a very real possibility of a backlash.
You've prepared yourself for either eventuality but a 'no comment' feels like crickets chirping in your soul. ~ Aaron Blaylock

You never know what will spark a student's interest and feed the flame of learning. For me, all subjects are connected: writing, reading, science, art, music, math, social studies. By presenting myself as a writer with wide ranging passions - for astronomy, volcanology, art, music, history, and community service - I hope to inspire not only budding writers but also budding scientists, artists, activists... ~ Elizabeth Rusch