Quotes from Our Chemical Hearts

“Love doesn't need to last a lifetime for it to be real. You can't judge the quality of a love by the length of time it lasts. Everything dies, love included. Sometimes it dies with a person, sometimes it dies on its own. The greatest love story ever told doesn't have to be about two people who spent their whole lives together. It might be about a love that lasted two weeks or two months or two years, but burned brighter and hotter and more brilliantly than any other love before or after. Don't mourn a failed love; there is no such thing. All love is equal in the brain.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“The best thing the universe ever gave us is that we'll all be forgotten. [...] I kinda like the idea. That when we die, despite any pain or fear or embarrassment we experienced during our lives, despite any heartbreak or grief, we get to be dispersed back into nothingness. It makes me feel brave, knowing I'll get a blank slate at the end. You get a brief glimmer of consciousness to do with what you will and then it's given back to the universe again. I'm not religious, but even I can appreciate that that's redemption, on the grandest scale. Oblivion isn't scary; it's the closest thing to genuine absolution of sin that I can imagine.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“We must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy, Grace. Reading Harry Potter is what is right.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Just because a love ends doesn't mean it wasn't real.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“I can’t lie to you and tell you that standing in front of someone and offering them your soul and having them reject you is not gonna be one of the worst things that ever happens to you. You will wonder for days or weeks or months or years afterward what it is about you that was so wrong or broken or ugly that they couldn’t love you the way you loved them. You will look for all the reasons inside yourself that they didn’t want you and you will find a million.
Maybe it was the way you looked in the mornings when you first woke up and hadn’t showered. Maybe it was the way you were too available, because despite what everyone says, playing hard to get is still attractive.
Some days you will believe that every atom of your being is defective somehow. What you need to remember, as I remembered as I watched Grace Town leave, is that you are extraordinary.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“They've poisoned you with this 'love is patient, love is kind' bullshit since you were a kid. But love is scientific, man. I mean, it's really just a chemical reaction in the brain. Sometimes that reaction lasts a lifetime, repeating itself over and over again. And sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it goes supernova and then starts to fade. We're all just chemical hearts. Does that make love any less brilliant? I don't think so.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“We were characters out of a movie. We were thoroughly alive. And we were absolutely beautiful.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Some people are born with an ear for music, some people are born with a talent for drawing, some people...have a built-in radar that tells them where a comma needs to go in a sentence.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“People are perfect when all that's left of them is memory.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“...Tell me you believe that our lives are anything more than a ridiculous cascade of random chances.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Plus, how can she be your soul mate? Didn't you tell me she'd never read Harry Potter? Do you really want to spend the rest of your life with someone like that? I mean, for God's sake, think of your children. What kind of environment would they be growing up in with such a mother?”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“The best thing the universe ever gave us is that we'll all be forgotten”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Grace had torn me apart and put me back together so many times that I'd started to believe that was what I wanted. A kintsukuroi relationship, more beautiful for having been broken. But something can only be shattered so many times before it becomes irreparable...”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Draft Three
Because I never realized that you could fall in love with humans the same way you fall in love with songs. How the tune of them could mean nothing to you at first, an unfamiliar melody, but quickly turn into a symphony carved across your skin; a hymn in the web of your veins; a harmony stitched into the lining of your soul”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Because it seems like a lot of hassle, liking someone. Your brain runs hot, the cogs inside your mind jarring together until all the oil of your thoughts is burned away. The fire spreads to your chest, where it chars your lungs and turns your heart to embers. And right when you think the flames have burned away everything but your skeleton, the spark skips from your bones to immolate not only your flesh, but your entire life.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“The insane rush of endorphins that flooded my system the moment my phone vibrated and her name popped up on screen was worrying. I'd never been addicted to anything before, but I thought maybe this is what it felt like to be a junkie in desperate need of a hit.
"Edward Cullen, you poor, miserable bastard," I said as I locked my phone screen and stared at the ceiling. "I should not have judged you so harshly.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Because I have never met anyone that I wanted in my life that way before.
But you.
I could make an exception for you.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Grace Town was a chemical explosion inside my heart. She was a star that'd gone supernova. For a few fleeting moments there was light and heat and pain, brighter than a galaxy, and in her wake she left nothing but darkness. But the death of stars provides the building blocks of life. We're all made of star stuff. We're all made of Grace Town.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“I know you want her back, kid. And I know that people saying things like 'there are plenty more fish in the sea' is only going to make you hurt more. And I could tell you all about the science of what your brain is going through right now. How it's processing a pain as intense as hitting a nerve in your tooth, but it can't find a source for that pain, so you kind of feel it everywhere. I could tell you that when you fall for someone, the bits of your brain that light up are the same as when you're hungry or thirsty. And I could tell you that when the person you love leaves you, you starve for them, you crave them, Heartbreak is a science, like love. So trust me when I say this: you're wounded right now, but you'll heal.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Well, it is a crypt. In the philosophical sense. All old buildings become crypts the moment they're finished. A shrine to a time that's already dead.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“The things you own end up owning you”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Grace Town is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“The trouble was, I did know what I wanted from Grace Town. I wanted to sleep with her, sure. I wanted her to be my girlfriend. A few years from now, I wanted to marry her. And then, when we were old, I wanted to drink peppermint tea and read Harry Potter to our grandchildren with her on the veranda of an old house in the countryside as we watched a summer storm roll toward us. Was that so much to ask?”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Mother. Father. I have news," I announced.
Dad looked up from an article about one of the Kardashians, "You've been conscripted to the war? What decade are you speaking from?"
"Ugh, fine: Home-Daddy, Mama P., I got a live tweet coming at you. Better?"
"Oh God, go back to World War Two, please," said Mom.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Lola and I both highly believed in the value of metaphorical gifts, so while everyone else saw a demonic-looking cat skeleton dripping wax on the packaging, Lola saw the message: Our friendship is like this feline shaped candle - burn away all the shit, and you and me are still solid underneath. Always.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“But that's how it should be with feelings. People should be forward.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Because I never realized that you could fall in love with humans the same way you fall in love with songs. How the tune of them could mean nothing to you at first, an unfamiliar melody, but quickly turn into a symphony carved across your skin; a hymn in the web of your veins; a harmony stitched into the lining of your soul.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Maybe Dracula wasn't a vampire, just a raging alcoholic who was constantly hungover.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“something can only be shattered so many times before it becomes irreparable, just as a piece of paper can only be folded so many times before it cannot be folded any more. While”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

“Here,” Grace said as she opened the book again and tore out the page with the poem on it. I flinched as though I were in actual pain. “You should have it, if you like it. Pretty poetry is wasted on me.” I took the paper from her and folded it and slipped it into my pocket, half of me horrified that she’d injured a book, the other half of me elated that she’d so willingly given me something that clearly meant a lot to her.”
― Krystal Sutherland, quote from Our Chemical Hearts

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Popular quotes

“In Ireland, you go to someone's house, and she asks you if you want a cup of tea. You say no, thank you, you're really just fine. She asks if you're sure. You say of course you're sure, really, you don't need a thing. Except they pronounce it ting. You don't need a ting. Well, she says then, I was going to get myself some anyway, so it would be no trouble. Ah, you say, well, if you were going to get yourself some, I wouldn't mind a spot of tea, at that, so long as it's no trouble and I can give you a hand in the kitchen. Then you go through the whole thing all over again until you both end up in the kitchen drinking tea and chatting.

In America, someone asks you if you want a cup of tea, you say no, and then you don't get any damned tea.

I liked the Irish way better.”
― C.E. Murphy, quote from Urban Shaman

“A woman can always strive to be stronger in the face of painful emotions.”
― Morgan Rhodes, quote from Crystal Storm

“help meet. But who said anything about what he deserves? You can only realize your womanhood when you are functioning according to your created nature. To covet his role of leadership is to covet something that will not make God, you, or him happy. It is not a question of whether or not you can do a better job than he; it is a matter of doing what you were “designed” to do. If you successfully do the job of leading the family, you will not find satisfaction in it. It is far better that the job be done poorly by your husband than to be done well by you. Your excellence as a help meet to him may very well be God’s plan for improving his leadership role in the family. Your female nature cannot be retrofitted to the male role without permanent damage to the original design.”
― Debi Pearl, quote from Created to be His Help Meet

“أقعنعنا فليشمان فعلاً في الحديث بالتفصيل عن نظريته الخاصة بالواقع الجنسي. وعند منتصف الليل كان قد قطع شوطاً طويلاً في الموضوع وقدّم لنا عرضاً رائعاً للمشكلة كلها. تظاهرنا في بعض الأحيان أنّنا لم نفهمه مما اضطره إلى إيضاح الأمور بصورة أفضل.
وكانت النتائج تفوق تصوراتنا. فهو ببراعنه العلمية الفائقة أظهر فهماً كبيراً للمشكلة، حيث يرى أنّ الدافع الجنسي عند الإنسان له أساس رومانسي عند الإنسان له أساس رومانسي شأنه الدافع الشعري. فعندما يتلقى الشاعر عمق الخلود من منظر الجبال، يعرف جيداً أنّ الجبال ليست آلهة مغطاة بالسحاب. بل إنّ عقله يضفي عليها بهاءً شديداً، أو أنّه يراها رمزاً لبهاء عقله الخفي، هذا وتُذَكِّرُهُ عظمتها وشموخها بعظمته وشموخه. وعندما يقع الإنسان في هوى امرأة، فإن الشاعر فيه هو الذي يرى فيها أداة للارتقاء. وطاقة الدافع الجنسي هذه إنّما هي الطاقة الإلهية الموجودة لدى الإنسان، كما أنّ الدافع الجنسي يستطيع أن يستثير هذه الطاقة مثلما يستثير الجبل إحساسه بالجمال. وذكر فليشمان أنّه يتعين علينا أن ننظر إلى الإنسان ليس باعتباره وحدة وإنّما صراعاً دائماً بين الذات العليا والذات الدنيا.
ويمثّل الانحراف الجنسي كما هو موجود عند دي ساد هاتين الذاتين وهما في صراع ملتحم لايمكن معه فصلهما أبدأً. وتُوَظّفُ الذات الدنيا عمداً قوى الذات العليا لأغراضها الخاصة.”
― Colin Wilson, quote from The Mind Parasites

“The Marine transformation is one of American life's storied tests.”
― quote from One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer

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