racheloreads-blog

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"It is as though in solitude the soul develops sense which we hardly know in everyday life. Therefore, I have not felt lonely or abandoned . . . What is happiness and unhappiness? It depends so little on the circumstances; it depends really only on that which happens inside a person." - God is in the Manger

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"'I hope Mr. Hartright will pay me no compliments,' said Miss Fairlie, as we all left the summer-house. 'May I venture to inquire why you express that hope?' I asked. 'Because I shall believe all that you say to me," she answered, simply. In those few words she unconsciously gave me the key to her whole character; to that generous trust in others which, in her nature, grew innocently out of the sense of her own truth." - The Woman in White

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“Alice laughed. "There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice… I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”“ - Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

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"C. S. Lewis, in his second letter to me at Oxford asked how it was that I, as a product of a materialistic universe, was not at home there. 'Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been, or would not always be, purely aquatic creatures?' Then, if we complain of time and take such joy in the seemingly timeless moment, what does that suggest? It suggests that we have not always been or will not always be temporal creatures. It suggests that we were created for eternity. Not only are we harried by time, we seem unable, despite a thousand generations, even to get used to it. We are always amazed at it- how fast it goes, how slowly it goes, how much of it is gone. Where, we cry, has the time gone? We aren't adapted to it, not at home in it. It that is so, it may appear as a proof, or at least a powerful suggestion, that eternity exists and is our home. . . . Golden streets and compulsory harp lessons may lack appeal- but timelessness? And total persons? Heaven is, indeed, home." - A Severe Mercy

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"... The knowledge that Jesus was in truth Lord would not be merely pleasant news gratifying some of our rare desires. It would mean overwhelmingly: that Materialism was Error as well as ugliness; ... that ones growth towards wisdom - soul-building - was not to be lost; and, above all, that the good and the beautiful would survive."

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"I wish I were out of doors - I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free... and laughing at injuries, not maddening under them! Why am I so changed?"

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"'Why canst thou not always be a good lass, Cathy?' And she turned her face up to his, and laughed, and answered, 'Why cannot you always be a good man, father?'"

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"Why do you compare and register everything as if life were destined to be measured with a ruler? Why are you so afraid of losing your ranking, of being left behind? Why, my dear are you so defensive? ... You say you're looking for beauty, but this isn't the way you achieve it, my dear friend. You won't find it while you look to yourself, as if everything revolved around you. Don't you see? You mustn't be careful, you must get hurt. What I'm trying to explain, child, is that unless you allow the beauty you seek to hurt you, to break you and knock you down, you'll never find it." The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

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“But I have to admit that I’ve also always felt burdened by nostalgia, by a desire to stop time, to recapture things that have been lost. A sense that everything, absolutely everything, is on a journey from which there’s no return.” The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera

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“The atmosphere of the [library] soothed her automatically; the rich lantern-lights, the sheer scent of paper and leather, and the fact that everywhere she looked, there were books, books, beautiful books.” The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

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“Most successes are unhappy. That’s why they are successes- they have to reassure themselves about themselves by achieving something that the world will notice.” Sparkling Cyanide by Agatha Christie