Top 10 Tuesday: Top 10 book quotes that make me feel all the things

It’s been years since I’ve last taken part in the Top Ten Tuesday meme, a feature brought to you by the fabulous bloggers over at The Broke and The Bookish.  In today’s post, and as per this week’s theme, I share the top 10 quotes that have made me feel all sorts of emotions.

This won’t be the first bookish quotes post I’m doing, but I never get tired of talking about passages or quotes from books that have deeply resonated with me, hence this post.

So, without further ado, here’s my top 10. 

1.  “It's my experience that people are a lot more sympathetic if they can see you hurting, and for the millionth time in my life I wish for measles or smallpox or some other easily understood disease just to make it easier on me and also on them.” – All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

Why this resonated: As someone who has depression ( I wrote about this in a post quite a while back), this passage really hit home. While my experience with this book has left me feeling, for the most part, divided about it, for me, Jennifer has perfectly summed up the stigma surrounding depression; a stigma I’ve often been subjected to.

Let’s face it, it’s easier to treat a physical wound than it is to repair what’s broken on the inside.  And In that respect, I’m so glad I read this book, because it’s really good to see authors addressing and debunking myths surrounding mental health issues. 

It’s one of the biggest reasons I could overcome my initial misgivings about this book and it’s a passage that will probably stay with me for a long, long time to come.

2. “It's a lot easier to be lost than found. It's the reason we're always searching and rarely discovered--so many locks not enough keys.” – Lock & Key by Sarah Dessen

Why it resonated: What would this list be without a Sarah Dessen quote?  I’ve yet to read a book of hers where I don’t get something from it, and Lock & Key proved to be no exception.  And to think it took me a second try before I finally fell in love with this book. 

The quote above really speaks to me on both a personal and introspective level, and appeals to that part of me that really longs to travel.

3.  “I will go out again this very night with my rockets and fuses. I will blow them straight out of their comfortable beds. Blow the rooftops off their houses. Blow the black, wretched night to bits. I will not stop. For mad I may be, but I will never be convenient.” – Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly

Why it resonated: Words can’t even begin to describe how much love I have for this book. In fact, I’m just going to direct you to the review I wrote for this, since this would only be a repeat of everything I’ve said.
 

Trust me though, it’s one of the best YA historical fiction novels I’ve read to date. I took so much from this book, and I especially loved the brave, courageous and butt-kicking heroines who taught me that the act of courage comes in so many different forms.

4. “Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” -  Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Why this resonates: Because it reminds me that for every single bad thing that happens, there’s always hope for a better day. Sometimes it takes a while to get to that better day, but eventually, brand new days always show up just when you need them..

5.  “Like stepping into a fairy tale under a curtain of stars.” - The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern 

Why it resonates: Because this encapsulates what I feel every time I open the pages of a new book.
 

6.  “I think that lesson was the most important: that none of us actually grow up. We get bigger, and older, but part of us always retains that small rabbit heart, trembling furiously, secretively, with wonder and fear. There's no irony in it. No semantics or subtext. Only red blood and green grass and silver stars” - Unteachable by Leah Raeder

Why it resonates: Because, at the heart of it, I’m still a child who refuses to grow up.  And quotes like these remind me why I should encourage and nurture that inner kid.

7. “These woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
― Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Why it resonates: My post wouldn’t be complete without a little something from my favourite poet, and at the heart of it, I really do want to travel those miles before sleep catches up with me. Don’t we all? 

8. “My father took one hundred and thirty-two minutes to die.

I counted.

It happened on the Jellicoe Road. The prettiest road I’d ever seen, where trees made breezy canopies like a tunnel to Shangri-La. We were going to the ocean, hundreds of miles away, because I wanted to see the ocean and my father said that it was about time the four of us made that journey.

I remember asking, 'What’s the difference between a trip and a journey?' and my father said, 'Narnie, my love, when we get there, you’ll understand,' and that was the last thing he ever said.” ― Melina Marchetta, On the Jellicoe Road

Why this quote resonates: Because this book is my heart, my soul and my everything.  Also, it’s one of those books whose opening lines you just don’t forget. Ever. You’re welcome to check out my review over here.

9.  “Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
― Dylan Thomas

Why this one resonates:  Because I want to leave this world with the knowledge that I’ve achieved something worthwhile, and while I’m alive, I’m going to kick, scream and rollercoaster my way through life until my inner self is content that I have lived well enough to leave a legacy worth remembering behind.
 

Grandiose perhaps, but there you have it. 

10. “When you grow up by the sea there's a kind of magic that never leaves you. The shimmery silver of salty mornings stays inside your bones. The rattling of windows on a winter night sharpens your senses. There's always power and deceptiveness in a flat blue sea. I'm a coast-town girl.  I know how quickly gentle water can turn into a foaming black mountain.” – The Apple Tart of Hope by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald

Why this resonates: Because this book is apple tarts and magic realism.

It is bitter strife, but also sweet hope and it reminds me that life is one churning mass of water that, at its own whim, will either cast you a safety net or throw you to the sharks.

Mostly it reminds me how good it feels to burn with the force that is life… regardless of whether it’s a gentle flame or  a raging and uncontrollable inferno.

You can read my review of the book here.

How about you? What are some of your favourite quotes and why? Please feel free to comment and leave a link to your post so I can visit in return.