I was beginning to learn that your life is a story told about you, not a story you tell

If you have a lot of things... you get too attached to this material world and you forget spiritual values. You must cultivate poverty of spirit.

There is more than one kind of freedom... freedom to and freedom from. Now you are being given freedom from. Don't underrate it.

"No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all."

•apologies for the mess that is my copy of atonement, we're studying it at school•

I have no patience for books that pretend life has meaning. I have no patience for happy endings.

page 226
According to the Big Bang theory, the universe came into being in one single moment - a cosmic cataclysm that gave birth to black holes, brown dwarfs, matter and dark matter, energy and dark energy. It gave birth to galaxies and stars and moons and suns and planets and oceans. It's a hard concept to hold on to - the idea that there was a time before us. A time before time.
In the beginning there was nothing. And then there was everything.

"It's a strange thing to realise that you're willing to die. It doesn't come in a flash, a sudden epiphany. It happens slowly, a balloon leak in reverse."

There are entire worlds that exist just beneath our notice of them.

"Wasn't writing a king of soaring, an achievable form of flight, of fancy, of the imagination."
Love the character of Briony❤️

"Just because you can't experience everything, doesn't mean you shouldn't experience anything."

"It's Mother Nature at her finest - awesome, beautiful, impersonal, murderous. Think about it: all that water and you could still die of thirst. And the whole point of waves is to suck your feet from under you so that you drown faster. The ocean will swallow you whole and not even notice you were there."

"'The waters are treacherous. And also fickle.' This is the first thing I learned about high school."

Currently reading: Holding Up The Universe ~ Jennifer Niven

Pain reminded me I was alive. For years I had been so numb, desperate to feel anything at all.

If people drive you to something...it's their responsibility

#suicide

I wondered if (she) knew how privileged she was to be able to feel anything at all, if she knew just how scary numbness could be. How it felt, sometimes, like a darkened room with no way out.

"You can't have art if you spend all your time forgetting pain."

I don't appreciate how often people hide their scars...it's not fair to people who are struggling, to go on believing everyone else just has it totally together...I know you people sometimes lie awake at night torturing yourselves over the atrocities in this world and mortality and meaning.

Just started this book. Loving it so far☺️

Amazing book! I found it quite hard to get into as there wasn't really any action until page 100ish but the storyline picks up really quickly after that. Such a great action/futuristic novel, really couldn't put it down! My favourite classic so far - read it now!!;)

"No advance in wealth, no softening of manners, no reform or revolution has ever brought human equality nearer" -George Orwell, 1984

"To hold on, you have to find something you're willing to die for"

Honest book about living with mental health. It's certainly not 'sugar-coated' like many of the other YA mental health books; it's a very unique story. We watch a girl, Evie, living with OCD (her recovery, her friendships, boys etc.) Beautiful, heart-breaking story. JUST READ IT!