Deon Knightly

“if you go and dance at a lot of weddings,
youll cry at a lot of funerals.
if you were at the beginning of many moments,
youll be there when they end.
if you have a lot of friends,
youll experience that many break ups.
if you think that the loss you feel is great,
its because youve attempted that many things in your life.
if you made a lot of mistakes,
its better than having lived without doing anything at all.
it is not unhappiness to be unable to reach a star,
unhappiness is that you don't have a star that you cannot reach.”
― Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Life Lessons: Two Experts on Death and Dying Teach Us About the Mysteries of Life and Living

“Easily vexed and grieved,
Foolishly flattered and deceived;”
― Robert Graves, Collected Poems 1965

“Whoever he said he was, thought Marsh, he was not from the immigration department, and the web that he was convinced Walsh had been weaving was beginning to unravel with disastrous and dangerous consequences.”
― Michael Parker, The Devil's Trinity

“I can't tell you what to do, Ishmael. I've tried to understand what it's been like for you - having gone to war, having lost your arm, not having married or had children. I've tried to make sense of it all, believe me, I have - how it must feel to be you. But I must confess that, no matter how I try, I can't really understand you. There are other boys, after all, who went to war and came back home and pushed on with their lives. They found girls and married and had children and raised families despite whatever was behind them. But you - you went numb, Ishmael. And you've stayed numb all these years.”
― David Guterson, Snow Falling on Cedars