Simone Elkeles · 257 pages
Rating: (6.3K votes)
“Expectations make people miserable, so whatever yours are, lower them. You'll definitely be happier.”
― Simone Elkeles, quote from How to Ruin Your Boyfriend's Reputation
“God take care of him, because he's my past and my future”
― Simone Elkeles, quote from How to Ruin Your Boyfriend's Reputation
“Running should be saved for the times when you're being chased.”
― Simone Elkeles, quote from How to Ruin Your Boyfriend's Reputation
“Is anyone human actually normal? I'm beginning to think being normal is actually abnormal.”
― Simone Elkeles, quote from How to Ruin Your Boyfriend's Reputation
“I keep my expectations low, so nobody disappoints me." "Yeah, well, I have high expectations." I look toward Miranda. "I guess my friends do, too." "Expectations make people miserable, so whatever yours are, lower them. You'll definitely be happier.”
― Simone Elkeles, quote from How to Ruin Your Boyfriend's Reputation
“Say something, Amy," Miranda insists. "Something positive. I'm sure it'll make you feel better."
"Okay, Miranda. I've got it." I motion the girls to lean in close to hear my words. "At least I'm not dead."
How's that for positivity?
I have to admit it does make me feel better.”
― Simone Elkeles, quote from How to Ruin Your Boyfriend's Reputation
“I prayed earnestly for this Sister who had caused me so much struggle, but this was not enough for me. I tried to do everything I possibly could for her, and when tempted to answer her sharply, I hastened to give her a friendly smile and talk about something else, for, as it says in The Imitation, “It is better to leave everyone to his own way of thinking than begin an argument.” (Imit., III, xliv, 1).”
― Thérèse de Lisieux, quote from Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux
“The Garden is a metaphor for the following: our minds, and our thinking in terms of pairs of opposites--man and woman, good and evil--are as holy as that of a god. (50)”
― Joseph Campbell, quote from Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor
“You are America. Yes, you are, my wicked boy. When we flew to New York and drove in on the highway, whatever the highway is, and those graveyards that are surrounded by cars and the traffic, and that was very confusing and frightening to me. I said do Matija, 'I don't like this'. I was crying. Motorized America with all the endless cars that never stop, and then, suddenly, the place of rest is between that. And they are thrown a little here and a little there. It's so very scary to me, so extremely opposite and different that I couldn't understand it. Through you it is all different now. Do you know? Through you I can think of those stones with understading now. I only wish now I went places with you. I was wishing today, all day, thinking of the places."
"Which places?"
"To where you were born. I would have liked to go to the Jersey shore."
"We should have gone. I should have taken you."
Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda. The three blind mice.
"Even to New York City. To show it to me through your eyes. I would have liked that. Wherever we went, we always went to hide. I hate hiding. I wouldn't mind to go to New Mexico with you. To California with you. But mainly to New Jersey, to see the sea where you grew up."
"I understand." Too late, but I understand. That we don't perish of understanding everything too late, that is a miracle.”
― Philip Roth, quote from Sabbath's Theater
“Zakath's face grew thoughtful. "You know something, Garion?" he said. "Man thinks he owns the world, but we share it with all sorts of creatures who are indifferent to our overlordship. They have their own societies, and I supposed even their own cultures. They don't even pay attention to us, do you?"
"Only when we inconvenience them...It teaches us humility," Garion agreed.”
― David Eddings, quote from The Seeress of Kell
“Why, oh why must one grow up, why must one inherit this heavy, numbing responsibility of living an undiscovered life? Out of the nothingness and the undifferentiated mass, to make something of herself! But what? In the obscurity and pathlessness to take a direction! But whither? How take even one step? And yet, how stand still? This was torment indeed, to inherit the responsibility of one’s own life.”
― D.H. Lawrence, quote from The Rainbow
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