Aryssa > Aryssa's Quotes

“Make them pay you what they would pay a white man.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“You can be sorry about something and not regret it,” Evelyn says.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“Be wary of men with something to prove.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“And taking pride in your beauty is a damning act. Because you allow yourself to believe that the only thing notable about yourself is something with a very short shelf life.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“Sometimes divorce isn’t an earth-shattering loss. Sometimes it’s just two people waking up out of a fog.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“I guess what I’m saying is it’s not all luck. It’s luck and being a son of a bitch.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“And I think about all the things we could be
if we were never told our bodies were not built for them.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X

“Just because your father's present, doesn't mean he isn't absent.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X

“My parents probably wanted a girl who would sit in the pews wearing pretty florals and a soft smile. They got combat boots and a mouth silent until it’s sharp as an island machete.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X

“Their gazes and words
are heavy with all the things
they want you to be.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X

“Pero, tú no eres fácil.”
You sure ain’t an easy one.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X

“When your body takes up more room than your voice, you are always the target of well-aimed rumors.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, The Poet X

“A queen
offers her hand to be kissed,
& can form it into a fist
while smiling the whole damn time.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Fight until you can’t breathe, & if you have to forfeit, you forfeit smiling, make them think you let them win.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“But one thing I learned from the Saints,
when the crossroads are open to you, you must decide a path.
I will not stand still while the world makes my choices.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“The patron saint of the ocean is known for containing many parts of herself: she is a nurturer, but she is also a ferocious defender. & so I remember that to walk this world you must be kind but also fierce.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“You do not let your words stunt unknown possibilities.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Mami wanted me to be a lady:
sit up straight, cross my ankles,

let men protect me.
Papi wanted me to be a leader.

To think quick & strike hard,
to speak rarely, but when I did,

to always be heard. Me?
Playing chess taught me a queen is both:

deadly & graceful, poised & ruthless.
Quiet & cunning. A queen

offers her hand to be kissed,

& can form it into a fist
while smiling the whole damn time.

But what happens when those principles
only apply in a game? & in the real world,

I am not treated as a lady or a queen,
as a defender or opponent

but as a girl so many want to strike off the board.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Never, ever, let them see you sweat, negra. Fight until you can’t breathe, & if you have to forfeit, you forfeit smiling, make them think you let them win.”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“I am beginning to learn that life-altering news is often like a premature birth: ill-timed, catching someone unaware, emotionally unprepared & often where they shouldn’t be:”
― Elizabeth Acevedo, Clap When You Land

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
― H. Jackson Brown Jr., P.S. I Love You

“Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.”
― Oscar Wilde

“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.”
― Bernard M. Baruch

“People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth, when you can show yourself to them, when you stand in front of them bare and their response is 'you're safe with me'- that's intimacy.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“I’m under absolutely no obligation to make sense to you.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“When you're given an opportunity to change your life, be ready to do whatever it takes to make it happen. The world doesn't give things, you take things.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“You have to find a job that makes your heart feel big instead of one that makes it feel small.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

“You see, there are some people that one loves, and others that perhaps one would rather be with.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House

“But no man would sacrifice his honor for the one he loves."

"It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.”
― Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House