Richard Paul Evans citations

“It is better to be loved by one person who knows your soul than millions who don't even know your phone number.”

“The thing is, the only real sign of life is growth. And growth requires pain. So to choose life is to accept pain.”

“The most important story we'll ever write in life is our own—not with ink, but with our daily choices.”

“Sunsets, like childhood, are viewed with wonder not just because they are beautiful but because they are fleeting.”

“Books are the most tolerant of friends.”

“I've come to know that what we want in life is the greatest indication of who we really are.”

“Love is never convenient-and rarely painless”

“Feelings can be like wild animals-we underrate how fierce they are until we've opened their cage”

“Sometimes its not the strength but gentleness that cracks the hardest shells.”

“We are chained to that which we do not forgive”

“Denial, perhaps, is a necessary human mechanism to cope with the heartaches of life.”

“The assumption of time is one of humanity's greatest follies. We tell ourselves that there's always tomorrow, when we can no more predict tomorrow than we can the weather. Procrastination is the thief of dreams.”

“I have learned a great truth of life. We do not succeed in spite of our challenges and
difficulties, but rather, precisely because of them.”

“Usually life’s greatest gifts come wrapped in adversity.”

“It is in the dark times that the light of friendship shines brightest.”

“Nothing heals the soul like chocolate… It's God's apology for broccoli.”

“Mr. Vey, you cannot be stuffed into a locker without your consent." Dallstrom said, which may be the dumbest thing ever said in a school. "You should have resisted. That's like blaming someone who was struck by lightning for getting in the way.”

“We spend our life building higher fences and stronger locks, when the gravest dangers are already inside”

“Life has taught me that to fly, you must first accept the possibility of falling.”

“Rarely do we invest the time to open the book of another's life. When we do, we are usually surprised to find its cover so misleading and its reviews so flawed.”

“Can you ever forgive me?
I already have.
How could you? I don't deserve it.
That's what makes it love.”

“There are people I've yet to meet who are waiting for my path to intersect with theirs, so they can complete their own journeys. I don't know who or where they are, but I know for certain that they are waiting.”

“I think the secret to a hoppy life is a selective memory. Remember what you are most grateful for and quickly forget what your not.”

“I don't want to go to Peru."
How do you know? You've never been there."
I've never been to hell either and I'm pretty sure I don't want to go there.”

“Broken vows are like broken mirrors. They leave those who held to them bleeding and staring at fractured images of themselves. (pg. 161)”

“It has been a mistake living my life in the past. One cannot ride a horse backwards and still hold its reins.”

“Could it be that to truly love a thing is not to desire it, but to desire happiness for it?”

“So often the pain of our life is no more than a reminder to take our hand off the stove.”

“… for we are all amateurs at life, but if we do not focus too much on our mistakes, a miraculous picture emerges. And we learn that it's not the beauty of the image that warrants our gratitude--it's the chance to paint.”