“There is a sort of magic in the written word. The idea acquires substance by taking on a visible nature, and then stands in the way of its own clarification.”
—W. Somerset Maugham
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
George Orwell (via 12wildswans)
It kills me sometimes, how people die.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (via thechocolatebrigade)
Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.
Jonathan Safran Foer (via absynthe-words)
breath is not aware of its history; it is just breath.
I wish I could be like that,
or love could be like that.
The Realm of Possibility, David Levithan (via hilegunslinger)
Start as close to the end as possible.
Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction
I think this can mean “don’t create a journey” for yourself. Don’t be romantic about accomplishing your goals.
(via petervidani)Writing eases my suffering… writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.
Gao Xingjian (via elegantbonez)
Why, hello.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, in a letter to editor Maxwell Perkins (July, 1922), sets forth his vision of his masterpiece, the novel that was to become The Great Gatsby (Princeton University)
this room and everything in it: Small, Generic Night Towns
we stumbled all the way to your place—
sultry footpath of August
(snapped heels busted straps)—past the gas station that sold
underage cigarettes because
someone’s mother didn’t careonce
after last call, the air
couldn’t hold any more lust we were
dizzy with the opposite of…
(Source: diodepoetry.com)
14 hours ago - 
50
50 Next to acquiring good friends, the best acquisition is that of good books.
Charles Caleb Colton (via lifeofliterature)
He who does not know foreign languages does not know anything about his own.
JW Goethe in Kunst and Alterthum
AM
(via asymptotejournal)We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with it’s own secrets, with it’s own treasures, with it’s own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.
Elie Wiesel, The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremburg Code (via booksandbrews)
Betrayal bent me in one direction while guilt bent her the other way. We constructed our lives around a misunderstanding, and if ever I tried to pull it out and fix it now I would fall down flat. Misunderstanding is my cornerstone. It’s everyone’s come to think of it. Illusions mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization.
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbra Kingsolver (via restlessforthefuture)
the color of low self esteem
what i never
learned
from my mother
was that
just because someone desires you
does
not mean they value you.
desire is the kind of thing that
eats you
and
leaves you starving.
(via abluesforbrklyn)
