Friends are like windows through which you see out into the world and back into yourself. If you don't have friends you see much less than you otherwise might. Merle Shain More Quotes by Merle Shain More Quotes From Merle Shain Loving can cost a lot but not loving always cost more. Merle Shain unrequited-love fear inspirational There are really only two ways to approach life - as victim or as gallant fighter - and you must decide if you want to act or react, deal your own cards or play with a stacked deck. And if you don't decide which way to play with life, it always plays with you. Merle Shain play inspirational life The answer doesn't lie in learning how to protect ourselves from life-it lies in learning how to become strong enough to let a bit more of it in. Merle Shain strong life lying Loving can cost a lot but not loving always costs more, and those who fear to love often find that want of love is an emptiness that robs the joy from life. Merle Shain fear heart love The job of a friend is not to decide what should be done, not to run interference or pick up the slack. The job of a friend is to understand, and to supply energy and hope, and in doing so to keep those they value on their feet a little longer, so that they can fight another round and grow strong in themselves. Merle Shain friends strong running One can never change the past, only the hold it has on you, and while nothing in your life is reversible, you can reverse it nevertheless. Merle Shain never-change life-is past The people in your life are like the pillars on your porch. Merle Shain pillars sometimes people The romantic myth is so strong that it survives the wear and tear of marriage by simply detaching from it and floating up on ahead, and women who are rather fond of the men they married, as well as ones who are not, go through life with a bag packed for the day when the shining knight on a white charger arrives, just in case he does. Merle Shain strong white men The day you spend hoping, the day you spend waiting, the day you spend in despair, is a day in your life as much as the tomorrow you hope for, but which may never come, so betting today on tomorrow is always a bad bet. Merle Shain despair waiting live-in-the-moment One often learns more from ten days of agony than from ten years of contentment. Merle Shain cancer adversity learning I'm not sure there can be loving without commitment, although commitment takes all kinds of forms, and there can be commitment for the moment as well as commitment for all time. The kind that is essential for loving marriages - and love affairs, as well - is a commitment to preserving the essential quality of your partner's soul, adding to them as a person rather than taking away. Merle Shain marriage soul commitment The conflict between what one is and who one is expected to be touches all of us. And sometimes, rather than reach for what one could be, we choose the comfort of the failed role, preferring to be the victim of circumstance, the person who didn't have a chance. Merle Shain roles chance comfort Love is short, forgetting is long, and understanding longer still. Merle Shain understanding love-is long Loving someone means helping them to be more themselves, which can be different from being what you’d like them to be, although often they turn out the same Merle Shain loving-someone different mean If there are no endings, there are no beginnings and you see no new lands, so for everything that's lost, there is usually something gained. Merle Shain beginnings-and-endings land lost Sex deepens love and love deepens sex, so physical intimacy transforms everything and playing with it is playing with fire. Merle Shain deep-love fire sex Life is like fording a river, stepping from one slippery stone to another, and you must rejoice every time you don't lose your balance, and learn to laugh at all the times you do. Merle Shain balance rivers laughing Friends are people who help you be more yourself, more the person you are intended to be. Merle Shain persons helping people There are many pages in the book, many kinds of lives we each can live, many ways to be rich, and even more to be poor. Merle Shain pages book way Girls gave sex to get love and boys gave love to get sex and conning girls was the favorite indoor sport. Merle Shain girl sports sex
