Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book Quotes

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I love to discover poignant, beautifully worded quotes. You can see a collection of some of my favorites on Goodreads. I'd hesitate to say the following list covers my all-time favorites...I'm sure there are many others I could add! But here are some I pulled from my Goodreads list because they're simply wonderful and meaningful.

This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

“I never said I was good,” he told her, taking the pen. “Just that I liked doing it.” 

“That’s the best kind of good.”

Within My Heart by Tamera Alexander

“He’d learned long ago that a life lived without risks pretty much wasn’t worth living. Life rewarded courage, even when that first step was taken neck-deep in fear.”

The Pursuit of Tamsen Littlejohn by Lori Benton

“Her soul was a country he longed to explore and know as well as he did every stone that pocked that creek path.”

A Wedding Invitation by Alice J. Wisler

“I spoke to God. God heard me. Sometimes that is all I need to know.”

Barefoot Summer by Denise Hunter

“Sometimes we have to find the courage to take off our shoes and feel it all. Even the bad stuff.”

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

“I had been waiting, all my life, for someone undeceived to love me.”

A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd

“I think that’s one of the best feelings in the world, when you know your name is safe in another person’s mouth. When you know they’ll never shout it out like a cuss word, but say it or whisper it like a once-upon-a-time.”

The Sound of Rain by Sarah Loudin Thomas

“As much as I love it here, I’m beginning to think you can do God’s work anywhere. All you have to do is look for someone who’s hurting and see if you can ease the pain.”

Daddy-Long-Legs by Jean Webster

“It isn’t the great big pleasures that count the most; it’s making a great deal out of the little ones—I’ve discovered the true secret of happiness, Daddy, and that is to live in the now. Not to be for ever regretting the past, or anticipating the future; but to get the most that you can out of this very instant.”

Crimson Bound by Rosamund Hodge

“This is the human way, she thought. On the edge of destruction, at the end of all things, we still dance. And hope.”

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What are some of your favorite lines from novels?

So True! ~ Quotes to Brighten Your Sunday

Goodreads is a great site for a variety of reasons, from digitally organizing your book collection to commenting on and "liking" what your friends are reading. But another plus is that you can keep track of great quotes you read, or stumble upon quotes that really resonate with you. Here are a few that I've spotted and/or added that might make you nod your head and smile:

"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?"
~ Henry Ward Beecher

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
~ Dr. Seuss

"I don't think God is ever done speaking into our lives. Even when we don't want to hear it. Even when our hearts are cold."
~ Susan May Warren (Baby, It's Cold Outside)

"In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you."
~ Mortimer Jerome Adler

"A broken heart in real life isn't half as dreadful as it is in books. It's a good deal like a bad tooth, though you won't think THAT a very romantic simile. It takes spells of aching and gives you a sleepless night now and then, but between times it lets you enjoy life and dreams and echoes and peanut candy as if there were nothing the matter with it."
~ L.M. Montgomery

"A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment."
~ Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice)

"There's a light in a woman's eyes that speaks louder than words."
~ Arthur Conan Doyle (The Hound of the Baskervilles)

"Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness."
~ C.S. Lewis

Monday for the Military: Moving Quote

“I hold the door to the post office open for a weathered man in a wheelchair. He is gracious, thanking me. One leg is missing, and just as I notice this, I see the sticker on the back of his chair: VIETNAM VETS.

My thoughts jumble as an ache brews in my heart. I think of war and how it destroys, divides, and damages. I see the faces of those in the refugee camp and those who found their names on The List and are now in America. I want to tell this wounded soldier that I am sorry for his loss and for the abandonment he may have felt upon his return. I want to say other things, but right now I'm just honored to hold the door for him.”

~ From A Wedding Invitation by Alice J. Wisler

Click HERE to read my review of this wonderful book!

A Variety of Smiles

I hope to give you at least a few different reasons to smile today! Of course, every day is a day to smile when you live in the awareness that you are loved by God. =)

• "If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you." ~Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne)

We have the quote above in a small frame we keep in our living room, and I think it is so precious. If Winnie the Pooh doesn't put a smile on your face, I don't know what will!

And for those of you who remember playing the Oregon Trail computer game, I highly recommend that you click HERE. This video on YouTube has a couple of crude moments, but it is ever so funny if you used to play the computer game, and if you remember having to choose your occupation, rafting down the river, and shooting your own food! I first saw this a few days ago embedded on a literary agent's blog, and it really made me laugh! The video is very well done and quite hilarious!

Finally, the following picture was taken on our last vacation, after we had played a round of miniature golf and we were looking at one of the of the other courses. If you watched the Oregon Trail clip above, then you could say I'm the kid who should have been more careful not to get a snakebite! ;) It's a good thing that's not a real snake, because 1) it's huge!!! and 2) my sister doesn't seem to care that I'm getting bit by a humongous rattlesnake! No worries, though--I would never look that happy if I saw a real snake like that!

Feel free to comment on anything and everything--even something completely random that made you smile recently! =)