To Risk: To laugh is to risk appearing a fool, to weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out to another is to risk involvement, to expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return, to live is to risk dying, to hope is to risk despair, to try is to risk failure. But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live. Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom. Only a person who risks is free. The pessimist complains about the wind;
the optimist expects it to change; and the realist adjusts the sails. -William Arthur Ward
"You know you’re in love with somebody when you wake up next to them, comfortable despite your breath smelling like the week-old water at the bottom of a vase, when you are terribly excited to see them, to talk to them again, having missed them after all that sleep." —Elliot Perlman (via makt-haverskan)
"Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering." —Paulo Coelho, By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept (via rbkv)