The widow begs you, therefore, if you ever pass through our village, to be good enough to spend the night in her house as her guest, and when you leave in the morning, to take the santuri with you.

Nikos Kazantzakis, from Zorba the Greek (thank you, patoisdujour)

Maybe it’s time to meet him in the proper light.

Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen (thanks, fayeistheflyest)

I still want to learn,
I want to know if I exist.

“[Is the sea there? …]” by Pablo Neruda, trans. William O’Daly

How do I start this day,
I who am unsure
of how my life has happened
or how to proceed
amid this warm and steady sweetness?

Albert Garcia, from “August Morning”

As Logan walked toward her, he smiled as if reading her mind and opened his arms.

Nicholas Sparks, from The Lucky One (thanks, frozen-ocean)

[When your laboratory explodes, lacing your body with a supercharged elixir, what do you do? You don’t just lie there. You crawl out of the rubble, hideously scarred, and swear vengeance on the world. You keep going.] You keep trying to take over the world.

Austin Grossman, from Soon I Will Be Invincible (thanks, talesofearth)

My own heart, broken like bones.

“Inside” by Jackie Kay

[The inevitable conclusion is
That the thoroughly studied field will certainly shine
Forever afterwards, on its own, like love.]
I tell you it will give forth light like the sky
And reflect in all directions like the mind cherishing
The studious glory of a seeded dandelion scattering
Its brilliant wind of stars before the sun.

Pattiann Rogers, from “Investigative Logic in a Study of Love”

(via weissewiese)

Alone over the land
song hallows and heals.

Rainer Maria Rilke (trans. Edward Snow), from “Sonnets to Orpheus” (I, 19)

I have ever thought
Nature doth nothing so great for great men
As when she ’s pleas’d to make them lords of truth:
Integrity of life is fame’s best friend,
Which nobly, beyond death, shall crown the end.

John Webster, from “The Duchess of Malfi” (thanks, greenkneehighs)