“A moment of peril is often also a moment of open-hearted kindness and affection. We are thrown off our guard by the general agitation of our feelings, and betray the intensity of those which, at more tranquil periods, our prudence at least conceals, if it cannot altogether suppress them.”
Source: Ivanhoe
“...I still cannot tap on your walls and discover by the hollow or firm sounds which of your walls are merely decorative, and which ones hold everything up.”
Source: Memory's Ghost: The Nature Of Memory And The Strange Tale Of Mr. M
“A nod at Beatrice who held absolutely still. "She said she would come with me. She insisted on it. She stamped her little foot at me."
He pointed down to her toes as if she were a child yet.
Then he straightened his shoulders. "But I sent her back to the nursery, where she belonged, and told her to play with her dolls instead. As everyone knows, a female on a hunt is a distraction at best and bad luck at worse."
Which explained why Beatrice went into the woods with her hound alone, George thought. She looked now as though she had gone to some other place where she could not hear her father's words and thus could not be hurt by them. George wondered how often she was forced to go to that place.
Did King Helm not see how much she was like him? It seemed she was rejected for any sign of femininity yet also rejected for not showing enough femininity, How could she win?”
Source: The Princess and the Hound
“Why must we hide,
Behind walls built high?
N' blame our lives,
On him, her, I?”
Source: He Had You at Belief
“Shoot, I thought Jesus was the only man who practiced what He preached, but Preston was a sermon without words. His character started slowly disintegrating the bricks pain had set up that worked to keep the fear in and the beauty out. As it did, my heart breathed deep and let out an affection with his name on it. And, I had no idea what to do with it.”
Source: Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been
“She was afraid that if she really held on to him, she'd never let go. She had to be cautious from now on, treat him as she would a skittish cat; be careful to never move too fast or need too much.”
Source: The Four Winds
“It’s not age that limits deep connection, it’s the walls we build. A young heart remains open, curious, and willing to leap. That’s how childhood bonds are formed, and how adult ones can be, too.”
“In a dependent relationship, the protégé can always control the protector by threatening to collapse.”
Source: The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
“Once they have been affected---once "it" sets in---codependency takes on a life of its own. It is similar to catching pneumonia or picking up a destructive habit. Once you've got it, you've got it.
If you want to get rid of it, YOU have to do something to make it go away. It doesn't matter whose fault it is. Your codependency becomes your problem; solving your problems is your responsibility.”
Source: Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself
“All of life is dependent upon other life, and the closer we consider what constitutes living, the harder life becomes to define.”
Source: The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet