Grace Leigh > Grace's Quotes

“I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me, but it’s hard to stay mad when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much; my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold onto it. And then it flows through me like rain, and I can’t feel anything but gratitude—for every single moment of my stupid, little life. You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure; but don’t worry….you will someday.”
― Alan Ball, American Beauty: The Shooting Script

“From MARS Volume 3 by Fuyumi Soryo:
Kira: “Why do you go through all that just to race? I guess asking that is the same thing as asking why I draw….probably because I’m alive….that’s all there is to it. I sense colors in you. They’re strong and beautiful….and sad. I wondered what your colors were for a long time. They’re the colors of the sunset…the blazing shades of a sunset that burn just before the darkness sets in. You said it was nothing, but there’s no one as alive as you.”
― Fuyumi Soryo (惣領 冬実), Mars, Vol. 3

“Kira: “Why did Sei choose death? Was it simply to end his pain? Or…No matter what shape he was in or how crazy it was…maybe he wanted to live on forever in Rei…”
― Fuyumi Soryo (惣領 冬実), Mars, Vol. 3

“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

“Getting over it so soon? But the words are ambiguous. To say the patient is getting over it after an operation for appendicitis is one thing; after he’s had his leg off is quite another. After that operation either the wounded stump heals or the man dies. If it heals, the fierce, continuous pain will stop. Presently he’ll get back his strength and be able to stump about on his wooden leg. He has ‘got over it.’ But he will probably have recurrent pains in the stump all his life, and perhaps pretty bad ones; and he will always be a one-legged man. There will be hardly any moment when he forgets it. Bathing, dressing, sitting down and getting up again, even lying in bed, will all be different. His whole way of life will be changed. All sorts of pleasures and activities that he once took for granted will have to be simply written off. Duties too. At present I am learning to get about on crutches. Perhaps I shall presently be given a wooden leg. But I shall never be a biped again.”
― C.S. Lewis, A Grief Observed

“Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.”
― Saul Bellow, Herzog

“The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do.”
― Galileo Galilei

“From the book From Nature’s Patient Hands by Elizabeth Barrette (“The Nature of Poetry, and Vice Versa” section):
” Walk as if nothing is chasing you. Watch as if nothing is afraid of you. Write as if you have nothing else in the universe to do.”
― Elizabeth Barrette, From Nature's Patient Hands

“Campfire Companions” poem:

“What a longing they touched in me! Ah,
would that I could lose myself in the wilderness,
become a ghost of smoke and shadow,
moving so subtly through the lucid moonlight
that all my edges wore away.”
― Elizabeth Barrette, From Nature's Patient Hands

“Wondering When the Strings Will Snap” poem:

“The marigolds herald autumn’s colors already
In their sun-shrine faces, iconographic
Floral worship of their distant deity -- yet they
Die at the first touch of frost, unlike chrysanthemums,
The true flowers of fall.”
― Elizabeth Barrette, From Nature's Patient Hands

“Twilight Surprise” poem:

“The sky burns down,
A rim of coals glowing gold and red,
Limned with orange again
And kissed with hints of pink.
The clouds reflect tangerine and plum,
Overshadowing the silent glory.
Darkness and light,
Balanced upon this equinox,
Dance together like old lovers …
… and beget beauty.”
― Elizabeth Barrette, From Nature's Patient Hands

“A Tangible Reminder”:
“Underfoot rustling unsilent leaves
Crackle electric ecstasy
Spice the autumn air,
A tangible reminder
That death can be a glory.”
― Elizabeth Barrette, From Nature's Patient Hands

“Alpenglow”:
“Even the rainbow never dreamed of this:
The touch of lastlight on snowy shoulders,
The kiss of dawn on crystal lips,
A rush of rarest red welling up to fill the mighty sky
With splendor.”
― Elizabeth Barrette, From Nature's Patient Hands

“Water in the Desert”:
“No desolation is so total
that it cannot contain somewhere,
concealed and singing,
a drop of life.”
― Elizabeth Barrette, From Nature's Patient Hands

“As smoking is to the lungs, so is resentment to the soul; even one puff is bad for you.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert

“We are not strong enough to stand up against endless grief, And yet pain is the constant drone of life. So if we are to have any happiness at all, it is only in the passing instant.”
― Charles Frazier

“Surely it is a sin to reject the few gifts we are given. Be happy in the flash of time granted to us or hurt forever.”
― Charles Frazier

“I've come to believe that part of lovesickness comes from this conflict between control and desire. In love we have no control. Our hearts and minds are tormented, teased, enticed and delighted by the overwhelming strength of emotions that make us try to forget the real world.”
― Lisa See, Peony in Love

“The past lies beneath the surface, intransigent truth. Remembered or not, what we say and do remains, always.”
― Meredith Hall, Without a Map

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.”
― Marilyn Monroe

“Our time together feels like a storm, like wild wind and rain, like something too big to handle but too powerful to escape. It blows around me and tangles my hair, leaves water on my face, makes me know that I am alive, alive, alive. There are moments of calm and pause as there are in every storm, and moments when our words fork lightening, at least for each other.”
― Ally Condie, Matched

“In a world of disorder and disaster and fraud, sometimes only beauty can be trusted.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

“It isn't possible to love and part. You will wish that it was. You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know by experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.”
― E.M. Forster, A Room with a View

“We're stronger in the places that we've been broken.”
― Ernest Hemingway

“In the darkest days, the Lord puts the best people into your life." (p. 28)”
― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

“Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for miseries and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries.”
― Blaise Pascal

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.”
― Albert Einstein

“He who is contented is rich.”
― Lao Tzu

“Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you.”
― Lao Tzu

“Courage is grace under pressure.”
― ernest hemingway