1. "Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat."

Written by Ralph Ellison in 1952, in The Invisible Man, a book about social issues faced by African-Americans in the early 20th century.

2. "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

By Anne Frank in her diaries; The Diary of a Young Girl, published in 1947, but written between '42-'44. She was around 13 when she wrote this.

3. "Terror made me cruel."

—Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights, 1847. Wuthering Heights is a love story and is Bronte's only novel.

4. "Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs."

The more popular of the Bronte sisters, Charlotte, wrote this in her book Jane Eyre, also in 1847.

5. "I hope she'll be a fool—that's the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool."

—F. Scott Fitzgerald in The Great Gatsby, 1925.

6. "There is history to read—centuries to comprehend before I sleep, millions of lives to assimilate before breakfast tomorrow."

Sylvia Plath wrote this in her journal when she was 18 years old. Her journals are compiled in the publication, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath. The book is a collection of her journals from 1950-1962; from the time she was 18 until she died at 30. I'm working my way through her journals right now and I've realized how relatable some of the things she writes about still are. Bonus: "I have lost all faith in my ability to attract a male." Same, Sylvia, same.

7. "We need never be ashamed of our tears."

—Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens in 1890.

8. "Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change."

Mary Shelley wrote this in 1818, in Frankenstein. Hate the book, love this quote.

9. "No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be true."

—Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, 1850. I read this book almost three years ago and this is still one of my favorite quotes of all time.

10. "It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be."

I had to include a Harry Potter quote. From Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, written by J.K. Rowling in 2000.

11. "Character is fate."

This is also by Plath in her journals, but I couldn't leave this one out.

12. "A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment."

—Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1813. I believe this was said by Darcy, one of my made-up-character crushes. No shame.

13. "The object of the artist is the creation of the beautiful. What the beautiful is is another question."

I'm closing with this quote from my favorite book, "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man." It was written by James Joyce in 1916, and is one of the most challenging yet fulfilling pieces of literature available to us to decipher. James Joyce is one of the most incredible writers of all time and, in Portrait, he finds a way to make style and form a part of the story. The book follows Stephen and switches from first and third person without warning. Joyce's writing matures as Stephen does and eventually the focus comes to Stephen's interpretation of art and beauty as he develops his "aesthetic theories." It's a difficult book to get through, but it's 100% worth the read.