As he drove away, I began to think that what kept us together was perhaps not even our romance with an imaginary France. That was just a veneer, an illusion. Rather, it was our desperate inability to lead ordinary lives with ordinary people anywhere--ordinary loves, ordinary homes, ordinary careers, watching ordinary television, eating ordinary meals, with ordinary friends--even ordinary friends we didn't have, or couldn't keep.

— André Aciman

Ask for the godly way, travel its path.

— Lailah Gifty Akita

As much as he liked the idea of having best friends with whom he could share anything. It was like all he knew how to be was alone, apart.

— Madeleine Roux

As we all know, as if forever exploiting or attempting to exploit each other were not enough, a group of sane human beings who have just reached the end of a war against a common enemy of theirs will sooner or later start or continue killing and/or fighting against each other.

— Mokokoma Mokhonoana

A thing is mighty big when time and distance cannot shrink it.

— Zora Neale Hurston

A truly compassionate man gives a poor woman a portion of his meal before he eats, not after he has eaten.

— Mokokoma Mokhonoana

At that moment, he was meaner and madder than he’d ever been, but mainly at himself, which is the worst kind of mean and mad to be, because the only thing to do about it is to take it out on someone else.

— Victoria Forester

At the heart of all sales and marketing is the ability to create demand even in the absence of logic.

— Jay Samit

BAIT GOAT There is a distance where magnets pull, we feel, having held them back. Likewise, there is a distance where words attract. Set one out like a bait goat and wait and seven others will approach. But watch out: roving packs can pull your word away. You find your stake yanked and some rough bunch to thank.

— Kay Ryan

Because sometimes when someone is telling you something really important, it’s best to just let there be silence, to really think about what they’re saying. A lot of times people think they have to say something all insightful or wise or something to try and make the person feel better. But really, sometimes silence is best.

— Lauren Barnholdt