I've always loved books, but it wasn't until recently that I really understood why. Books are an escape. They bring me to a new world and distract me from reality, and somehow, somewhere along the way, they make me understand the real world a little better. Maybe it's because the characters are able to resolve issues I see no solution to in my life or because the authors describe my own thoughts and emotions better than I can or because the words are just more beautifully written than I could ever speak them, but books change the way I see the world.
1. "We accept the love we think we deserve."
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
2. "And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes. People aren't supposed to look back. I'm certainly not going to do it anymore."
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
3. "Perhaps people did not want to be loved as much as understood."
1984 by George Orwell
4. "But I don't want comfort. I want God. I want poetry. I want real danger. I want freedom. I want goodness. I want sin."
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
5. "Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves."
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
6. "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum."
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
7. "You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want."
The Outsiders by SE Hinton
8. "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you get inside his skin and walk around in it."
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
9. "There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad guy. Most people are somewhere in between."
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
10. "If there's one thing I've learned, it's this: We all want everything to be okay. We don't even wish so much for fantastic or marvelous or outstanding. We will happily settle for okay, because most of the time, okay is enough."
Every Day by David Levithan
