[image by note to self]

[images from thefrenchknot and whitelightsandlatenights]

"You're going to come across people in your life who will say all of the right words at all of the right times. But in the end, it's always their actions you should judge them by. It's actions, not words, that matter."

Nicholas Sparks, The Rescue

"Love hard or not at all."

Minka Kelly on relationship advice, Cosmopolitan Magazine October 2011

“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have really lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love...

On that last analysis, then, love is life. Love never faileth and life never faileth so long as there is love.”

Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World and Other Addresses

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*It's amazing the people who come into your life and say some of the most beautiful things. It reminds me of a Grey's quote I think I've posted before: "At the end of the day faith is a funny thing. It turns up when you don't really expect it... once in a while, once in a blue moon, people will surprise you, and once in a while people may even take your breath away."

"It was two adults having the maturity to step away and realize that just because we love each other doesn't mean we're right for each other."

Emily Maynard, People Magazine July 2011

"Love who you love while you have them. That's all you can do. Let them go when you must. If you know how to love, you'll never run out."

Ann Brashares, My Name is Memory

"In retrospect, it wasn't really a decision at all. Looking back, even from this great distance, I don't think I would have done anything else. Wrong as it may have been, I would do it again."

Ann Brashares, My Name is Memory

"I guess I was better at loving then, too, and also better at being loved--the two go together."

Ann Brashares, My Name is Memory

"Experience: the most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my god, you learn."

C.S. Lewis

Unless you can think, when the song is done

No other is soft in the rhythm,

Unless you can feel, when left by one,

That all men else go with him.

Unless you can know, when unpraised by his breath

That your beauty itself wants proving,

Unless you can swear "For life, for death,"

Oh, fear to call it loving.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Excerpt from A Woman's Shortcomings

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*This is only one stanza from the five stanza poem I just memorized for poetry class. Need I remind you that I am a song lyrics connoisseur, not a poet. This was a very difficult assignment for me... I even had to sing the poem to myself to pretend it was a song. When I asked my mom for advice on what poet to chose from, though, she told me that Elizabeth Barrett Browning was the Taylor Swift of her time. I think I can handle that.

"I have this old-fashioned kind of love for the actual book as an object. There is something about holding that book in your hands and turning the pages. I like to see all of the books I've read sitting up on a shelf. I can look at them and remember things just looking at the spines of the books."


Professor Aaron Santesso on getting a Kindle

"Playing coy is silly. Speak your mind. If a man gets turned off, he's the wrong man."

Mila Kunis, Cosmopolitan February 2011

“Ladies, let me give you some advice. You can throw all your stupid chick-lit, self-help, why-doesn’t-he-love-me books out, because this is all you need to know: Men will treat you the way you let them. There is no such thing as “deserving” respect; you get what you demand from people... If you demand respect, he will either respect you or he won’t associate with you. It really is that simple."

Tucker Max, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell

"Sometimes you couldn’t face the sadness of being forgotten until you felt the comfort of being remembered again."

Ann Brashares, The Last Summer (Of You and Me)

[image via sarah ellen en paris]

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it does not keep records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perserveres."

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

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**I went to a beautiful wedding tonight and, as expected, this passage of the Bible was read. No matter how many times I hear it, however, it still resonates with me as being the best love quote of all time. No love song lyrics, romantic movie quotes, or fictional story passages can compete with the true, heartfelt words of scripture.

[image via le love]

Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love

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**Thank you, Merelise, for reading me this quote. :)

Summer Reading

This summer's must-read list begins with these three books. I'm tired of saying I'll read more, and then spending hours in front of the television. I vow to change that this summer. Along with a few other things.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know you were coming or I'd have cleaned up a little more. My life, I mean, not just the apartment."

Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife

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*I want to read this book now. I just saw the movie and it was beautiful in all of its romance and unpredictability.