Don't beg for approval or expect respect. Respect comes from within and your choice to allow people to take it from you, by how you teach them to treat you.

He who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.

If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you're allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind.

There comes a time in your life when you have to choose to turn the page, write another book or simply close it.

A true gentleman is one that apologizes anyways, even though he has not offended a lady intentionally. He is in a class all of his own because he knows the value of a woman's heart.

A best friend is the only one that walks into your life when the world has walked out.

The most confused you will ever get is when you try to convince your heart and spirit of something your mind knows is a lie.

When you loved someone and had to let them go, there will always be that small part of yourself that whispers, "What was it that you wanted and why didn't you fight for it?

The most introspective of souls are often those that have been hurt the most.

When someone you love says goodbye you can stare long and hard at the door they closed and forget to see all the doors God has open in front of you.

If he can't handle you at your worst then he does not deserve you at your best. Real love means seeing beyond the words spoken out of pain, and instead seeing a person's soul.

Reality doesn't impress me. I only believe in intoxication, in ecstasy, and when ordinary life shackles me, I escape, one way or another. No more walls.

At no moment in history has a bright young girl with plenty of food and a good constitution perished from too much learning.

There and then, sitting beside her and within the strength of my adoration, I felt invincible.

Well tended garden is better than a neglected wood lot.

The British needlewoman follows blindly where the merchant leads.

We all strive to find something unique and special that we are passionate about that separates us from the rest.

I can honestly say [that writing] is the best life there is, because you get to live within the realm of your own mind, and that is a profoundly rare human privilege.

Imaginary evils soon become real one by indulging our reflections on them.

We all need to provide the checks and balances for democracy.

Most good fiction also has a character the writer seems to know more deeply than anyone can actually be known in life, but a few unusual writers can make something great without that.