Delphine’s Life Through Book Quotes

Dear fellow Babblers,

Halfway through yet another week. I just finished reading The Time Traveler’s Wife, have been jogging everyday since I got back home, and have been incessantly daydreaming about where my life is going next. It’s not like I’m unable to live in the here and now or whatever them zen gooroos say. It’s just that I’m always somewhere else in my mind. This is not something new. Ever since I was young in grade school I as always the child looking out the window, coming home with marks on my report card saying “needs to get out of ‘la la land’, and enjoying every school trip to the library. Books have from childhood into my young adult life fed into my imagination and given me somewhere to go in my mind. Novels, short stories and poems have given me another world to enter and often after finishing one book I would find myself reacting to situations and making decisions based on what my favorite characters would do. Books have affected and influenced my life both internally and externally from the way I see myself and others to how I’ve lived my life throughout the years.

So, for today’s post, I thought I would share some of my favorite quotes from some of the books that have either affected my views of life or for no other reason than they are just beautiful. 

The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt

“Stay away from those you love too much. Those are the ones who will kill you”

Anyone who has loved hard, lost themselves as they fought to love will understand the irony in this phrase. Love is sort of funny. It’s supposed to be and, luckily for many, brings joy and makes one feel weightless. But there is the invisible area where you begin to love so much, fight so hard to love that you lose yourself in the process. And when the love spell breaks, you’ve already been gone and you don’t realize it till that very moment when you watch yourself, in the body of that person you loved so deeply, walk away.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

“It’s much easier to not know things sometimes. Things change and friends leave. And life doesn’t stop for anybody. I wanted to laugh. Or maybe get mad. Or maybe shrug at how strange everybody was, especially me. I think the idea is that every person has to live for his or her own life and than make the choice to share it with other people. You can’t just sit their and put everybody’s lives ahead of yours and think that counts as love. You just can’t. You have to do things. I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m going to be who I really am. And I’m going to figure out what that is.”

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an ongoing flow of heartfelt quotes that carry some great meaning. This one is especially speaks to me. Even when the worst possible situations can take over life, you just can’t stop. Life goes on and does not wait for us to wipe our tears, finish the rest of the cookies, or learn to give a truthful smile again. It goes on and we either have the choice to open ourselves up and let others in, or to remain closed and learn to cope. But no matter how we choose to lead our lives, we must never forget who we are.

Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami

“Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.”

Life is an ongoing serious of losing. We all have an expiration date, but how we choose to spend the time between may just be worth the loss in the end.

 

Love & Misadventure, Lang Leave

“I don’t think all writers are sad, she said. I think it’s the other way around- all sad people write.”

I don’t know, there’s just something writing that eases pain. Whenever I’m feeling the blues or just want to let go I find myself in front of my computer typing away, letting everything I feel but have never said flow right out into the screen in front of me.

More Happy Than Not, Adam Silvera

“I’ve become this happiness scavenger who picks away at the ugliness of the world, because if there’s happiness tucked away in my tragedies, I’ll find it no matter what. If the blind can find joy in music, and the deaf can discover it with colors, I will do my best to always find the sun in the darkness because my life isn’t one sad ending—it’s a series of endless happy beginnings.”

Happiness should never be hard. It shouldn’t. But sometimes, often it is. Especially when we come out of depression spells or hard times, it’s hard to believe that some life ago, we were happy. It’s even harder to believe that happiness could be possible again when we’ve seen ugliness and experienced tragedies. However, hidden in every garbage pile is beauty and it’s up to us to let that beauty grow.

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.”

This quote resonates with me especially now, during this time in my life where I finally feel myself living outside of books, exploring the world and creating my own story out of it. Since moving to France I’ve visited countries throughout Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and even separate little islands on the Mediterranean like Malta and Cyprus. I’ve created memories, felt changes in myself, learned that I had an inner strength that I never knew was there. I’ve seen things that I’ve only ever read about in fairytales and travel memoirs. Culture, different and new ways of life, the promise that there is more beauty out there than pain is what keeps me going. It’s this spiritual connection with the world that’s been growing inside me that keeps me from falling further.

The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“People have stars, but they aren’t the same. For travelers, the stars are guides. For other people, they’re nothing but tiny lights. And for still others, for scholars, they’re problems… But all those stars are silent stars. You, though, you’ll have stars like nobody else… since I’ll be laughing on one of them, for you it’ll be as if all the stars are laughing. You’ll have stars that can laugh!… and it’ll be as if I had given you, instead of stars, a lot of tiny bells that know how to laugh …”

This is just beautiful. The Little Prince is a constant reminder of the delicacy of childhood. We all begin as innocent children, dreaming, pretending, playing. We grow and become victims of the world. Some of us let the world turn us against our dreams, while others retain that childhood soul so hopeful, adventurous and full of laughter.

The Secret History, Donna Tartt

“There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty – unless she is wed to something more meaningful – is always superficial.”

Another Tartt quote… It’s nice to be pretty, to have that luscious hair or perfect skin, sure, it’s really nice. But what of the rest? Beauty is not defined by what is seen acrosss a room with long legs and a white smile. It is the heart that beats on the inside and the thoughts that play out into words towards others.

Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”

I had to include a quote from Alice in Wonderland, it’s a classic tale of imagination, what it can do, and the importance of never letting it die out. Though I just turned 23, I still spend hours a day wandering around in my own mind, looking out the window and seeing a troll growing out of the grass or maybe flowers being blown out by the clouds. There’s so much good that nonsense can do that I’m not sure what I would be without it.

Yours Truly,

(Book image credits go to Goodreads)

Anyone care to comment below some book quotes that have affected their life ? Any favorites ? Recommendations ? 

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