Smart and Cute Quotes from Notebook

You can’t live your life for other people. You’ve got to do what’s right for you, even if it hurts some people you love.

Sometimes what we do will hurt other people, but if we have no intentions to hurt, if we are just on our path, we need to stay on that road, and keep walking. It’s the ultimate test of our persistence.

When we think of Noah, he’s also been doing everything for his own happiness. But that’s what we want our loved ones to do. We want them to do things they enjoy.

I’ve learned that we’re all entitled to have our secrets.

It took me a long time to believe in this one. And yes, I finally can say that we don’t owe anyone the whole truth and nothing but the truth. There’s no such a thing as 100% honesty and openness. It’s silly to demand it from others or from ourselves. It’s silly to blame someone for keeping something just for himself, or keeping something away from us, or modifying the way he’s presented his reality. We’re doing it on a daily basis. It’s called life. Sometimes we can’t tell truth and fiction. Sometimes we believe things firmly but that doesn’t make them true. Sometimes things that are hard to believe are truth and nothing but the truth.

Here’s the example of some perfectly correct lying.

I was just going for a walk. I couldn’t sleep.

You were going to see Miss Allie. Now you know you’re not allowed. It’s against the rules. You go back to your room. And as for me, I’m going downstairs to get a cup of coffee and won’t be back for a while. Stay out of trouble.

[He walks over to Nurse Esther’s counter and sees a full cup of coffee].

A person can get used to anything if given enough time.

They say that people have the baseline of happiness, and they soon return to that after great tragedy or strike of luck. But people are also creatures of habit and adaptation. They can get used to new circumstances. And they do get used to it. This is valid for both good and bad. When it comes to bad, we end up tolerating it better. When it comes to good, we end up appreciating it less.

It’s the possibility that keeps me going, not the guarantee.

There are no guarantees in life. Death is the only certain thing (so far). You don’t need to be certain of something to pursue it. You need to know that it might or it might not happen, but you put an effort and try.

The scariest thing about distance is it’s that you don’t know whether they’ll miss you or forget you.

Slightly cheesy but true – distance can tell – are you easy to forget or Unforgettable, that’s what you are…

You’re looking for someone who will magically fill that void. But no one can do that but you.

You are the person responsible for yourself. There are external influences, and unless you are Buddhist about to achieve Nirvana, you’ll be influenced by outside forces. Still, no other person can heal you. No one can fill up your inner void. It can work only temporarily as a drug.

The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds.

Love should be inspiring. At its best, it should help us be(come) our best. And, again (hopefully, just slightly) unrealistic image of love that brings you belly butterflies and peace of mind. It’s like oxymoron. But at moments I feel it happening. It’s just that those moments are fleeting.

Sometimes our future is dictated by what we are, as opposed to what we want.

This is mature talking. Sometimes we get what we think we deserve, sometimes we get less, or worse. We get all kinds of stuff in this life. One should not expect all his wants to be satisfied, at least not all the time.

Early on, he’d learned to enjoy simple things, things that couldn’t be bought, and he had a hard time understanding people who felt otherwise.

One may say that the best things in life are free. The other will argue that nothing’s free. Love may be a million times nobler than money, but love you can live without (even though not easily), and money you can’t live without, literally.

I could rest my case here, but I’ll add that I’m the consumer of experiences, not products so I do understand what Noah is saying in the line above.

So it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be really hard. We’re gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you.

This line introduces some effort. Finally, it admits that love is not just something that pops up or goes away magically. Although, I have to confess, at times (even to me) it seems that it works just like that.

Poetry, she thought, wasn’t written to be analyzed; it was meant to inspire without reason, to touch without understanding.

I could never understand when teacher wants us to dissect each and every verse. And it’s bizarre to imagine that we can tell what the poet was thinking and meaning with something. It’s the feeling, not the meaning when it comes to poetry. When it comes to love, it’s feeling too. But feelings are fickle, if we don’t add some meaning to them.

Summer romances begin for all kinds of reasons, but when all is said and done, they have one thing in common. They’re shooting stars, a spectacular moment of light in the heavens, fleeting glimpse of eternity, and in a flash they’re gone.

There are moments that are spectacular. If we cherish them we can turn our life into a spectacular ride.

Life is simply a collection of little lives, each lived one day at a time.

We play many roles during our life. We visit many (mental) places. We can see days as separate lives. But at the end, there’s always some leitmotif that puts all those stories together.

No matter what happens to us in the future, everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life.

This may ring true. The future is uncertain but days spent together are time of his life. For now, they are.

Only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking.

Great talks and great laughs are to be had in a good company, but it’s true that people, if not very intimate, try to avoid silence. They would rather blabber and discuss the weather than say nothing. Silence is uncomfortable, unless you can just be next to each other and feel happy.

Holding her in my arms was more natural to me than my own heartbeat.

This is melodrama, but has a point. Sometimes you just feel at ease with someone. Things that happen between you two feel natural.

That’s my sweetheart in there. Wherever she is, that’s where my home is.

Yes, slightly pathetic, but forgivable. Sometimes we feel that our home is wherever the other person is.

But we should believe that’s the real love only if we know that the other person feels the same. If one is not chasing the other. There can’t be only the one accommodating the other. Both persons should take into account the other when making decisions and building home (figuratively speaking).

At times, with all the best intentions home is not where the love is.

And to save the best for last:

Young Allie: [after making love to Noah for the first time] You gotta be kiddin’ me. All this time, that’s what I’ve been missin’? Let’s do it again.

[after making love all day]

Young Noah: Hmmm. I want some… uh… pancakes… and some bacon… and chicken.

Cover photo: glloyd.com