Bad things happen to good people every day.
Small Great Things is a reference to a quote often attributed to Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.
There it was, shiny and silver, pinned to the requisite position on his chest-a shield that covered his heart but had not been able to protect it.
She had spent her entire life being what everyone wanted her to be. The perfect daughter, the budding artist, the best friend, the first love. She had been so busy meeting everyone’s expectations, in fact, that it had taken her years to remember exactly why it was all one big farce. She was not perfect, far from it, and what you saw on the outside was not what you really were getting. Deep down, she was dirty, and this was the kind of thing that happened to girls like her.
How many exceptions do there have to be before you start to realize that maybe the truths you’ve been told aren’t actually true?
The loneliest creature on earth is a whale that has spent more than twenty years calling out for a mate, I read, but whose voice is so different from those of other whales that none of them ever respond.
We routinely deport hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens every year whose sole offense is that they overstayed a visa or came without the right paperwork – but people who were involved in crimes against humanity get to stay?
My father, a closet astronomer, has tried to explain black holes to me, how they are so heavy they absorb everything, even light, right into their center. Moments like this are the same kind of vacuum; no matter what you cling to, you wind up being sucked in.
There are some weeds that are just as beautiful as flowers.
I have always envied people who believe strongly in religion, people who could face a tragedy by praying and know that it would be all right.
When he kissed me, it was with the desperation of a man who is trying to save himself.
As long as I remembered them, then they were still here.
If you can’t fly, run. If you can’t run, walk. If you can’t walk, crawl. But by all means, keep moving.
It was tough to admit to yourself that someone else had more courage than you would in the same situation, or that it was possible to love someone in a way that you had not personally experienced.
To live was always a conditional verb.
If you bring forth what is within you, what is within you will save you. If you don’t bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you.
That if our legacy is not entitlement, it must be hope. Because if it’s not, then we become the shiftless, the wandering, the conquered. We become what they think we are. –.
Finding God’s grace wasn’t like locating missing keys or the forgotten name of a 1940s pinup girl – it was more of a feeling: the sun breaking through an overcast morning, the softest bed sinking under your weight. And, of course, you couldn’t find God’s grace unless you admitted you were lost.
Selling the idea that the Jews were to blame for all of Germany’s problems was just not that difficult. Any military man will tell you that the way to pull a divided group together is to give them a common enemy. This is what Hitler did, when he came to power in 1933 as chancellor. He threaded this philosophy through the Nazi Party, directing his diatribes against those who leaned left politically.
Everyone omes with a label, it’s up to you to peel it off.” pg.155 Vanishing Acts.