That which makes man the mere plaything of fate is God.
Preston smirked. “You’re gonna have to stop calling me things like ‘gorgeous’ and ‘beautiful. ’ I’m gonna get a complex. Why can’t I be ‘sexy,’ or maybe ‘irresistible’?
I'm trying my hardest to get you so wrapped up in me you never leave.
You are mine. Do you hear me? You are mine, Della Sloane. I will take care of you. Nothing is taking you away from me. Nothing.
He wasn't what sent me running. He was what had made me want to stay.
Not everyone sees you the way you do. Sometimes our imperfections are what makes us special. - Tripp
In my search to find myself, I’d found so much more. I knew now why I wanted to live. I understood love. I had found it.
The narrative for girls is that you just hang around and wait to be "chosen" and then you belong to somebody and you live happily ever after. There isn't room for more nuanced concerns about the creepy proprietary nature of that relationship model, or the breadth of what fulfillment really means for women.
Just as the child must trust his mother, the white belt must believe in the good will of his instructor. There will be a time for questioning, but for now he must focus and train.
Those who speak of our culture as dead or dying have a quarrel with life, and I think they cannot understand its terms, but must endlessly repeat the projection of their own desires.
There are moments when you feel that the desire to work is fading, and the only way to bring it back is to get away from it, to put yourself in a state of frustration so you feel the need again.