I will stand by you. You must not be afraid. This is a brave land, Susanna, founded by brave people who never shrank from their duty or their vision of freedom. But this land has a future only if each of us stands up for what is right when it is given us to do so.

Ann Rinaldi

Categorized in : People Brave Land

I didn't know how to say goodbye. Words were stupid. They said so little. Yet they opened up holes you could fall into and never climb out of again.

stupid goodbye fall

When I wrote, I felt better, as if I had remade the world all of a piece, the way I wanted it to be, not the way it was.

pieces way world

And in that moment I possessed and lost the whole world and everything in it and was left with the feeling and the knowledge, which is love, that no matter how we give ourselves we always end up losing. That to love is to lose, the moment we agree to the bargain. And that, being human, we keep standing there wanting to lose more.

love-you love-is giving

Love is like light and there are two kinds, the bursting fireworks of the moment and the solid, fixed stars that sometimes become obscured in the heavens, but are always there, year after year, for a lifetime.

stars light love-is

A person has to be strong in life. A person must practice strengt... by Ann Rinaldi

A person has to be strong in life. A person must practice strength, even if they don't feel it.

strong practice feels

I want a place. It has to do with the kind of person I want to be. And how I fit in to everything. I want people to listen when I open my mouth. And know I'm worth listening to." She stared at me. "That's all?" To me it was not all, it was everything.

mouths listening people

Most of our miseries we bring on ourselves. And they're the sum o... by Ann Rinaldi

Most of our miseries we bring on ourselves. And they're the sum of our own stupidity.

misery stupidity

When I write I am the real me. by Ann Rinaldi

When I write I am the real me.

real-me real writing

You don't trade in the devil you know for the one you don't know. by Ann Rinaldi

You don't trade in the devil you know for the one you don't know.

devil trade life

No one is a virgin, because life has screwed us all. by Ann Rinaldi

No one is a virgin, because life has screwed us all.

virgins

Sometimes it takes courage to leave. by Ann Rinaldi

Sometimes it takes courage to leave.

courage-to-leave sometimes

Sometimes it take courage to leave. by Ann Rinaldi

Sometimes it take courage to leave.

courage-to-leave sometimes

Because I had already resolved that if you're afraid of love, your heart will break anyway, only in not half so nice a fashion as it does when you let somebody love you.

fashion nice love-you

Let me say the good are often punished unfairly. by Ann Rinaldi

Let me say the good are often punished unfairly.

let-me

Are all American girls as daft as you, Rachel?" "I hope so," I sa... by Ann Rinaldi

Are all American girls as daft as you, Rachel?" "I hope so," I said.

daft girl said

A person doesn't ask permission to fall in love; not even of them... by Ann Rinaldi

A person doesn't ask permission to fall in love; not even of themselves.

falling-in-love persons permission

When a woman's face is wrinkled And her hairs are sprinkled, With gray, Lackaday! Aside she's cast, No one respect will pay; Remember, Lasses, remember. And while the sun shines make hay: You must not expect in December, The flowers you gathered in May.

shining flower hair

The most important thing we ever have to learn in life is to live... by Ann Rinaldi

The most important thing we ever have to learn in life is to live with our choices.

important choices life-is

Doing good doesn't always make you feel good. I don't care what t... by Ann Rinaldi

Doing good doesn't always make you feel good. I don't care what they tell you in church.

care feel-good church

There are depths to the human soul that should not be fathomed. by Ann Rinaldi

There are depths to the human soul that should not be fathomed.

depth soul should