Quotes About Belonging

This is a door. You can close it and stay here, outside, by yourself, or you can walk through it and join them

With all the holes in you already there's no reason to define the outside environment as alien.

What does it say about your society that it admits only those who do not care very much to belong? For a start, it suggests that the English don't much care to be liked. They prefer the company of other misanthropes. Since no misanthrope worth the name would actually want to join a club, eager applicants must be snubbed.

in fact, as a woman, I have no country

If you are Pakistani or Indian you might just as well commit suicide when the team is humiliated; if you're West Indian, you might feel the world has fallen apart when things go wrong at the Oval. But these are countries where cricket is one of the leading suppliers of national pride. In England, you don't support cricket teams, you follow them. It's the game you support, not the team.

When the accoutrements of custom disappear, they may be replaced by a sense of abandonment, of being adrift in unchartered waters. Our children lack a sense of history and belonging—of an anchored presence in the world. To establish a sense of control and comforting familiarity in an alienating society, the individual may resort to a wide range of pathological behavior—substance addiction, eating disorders, criminal behaviors, and so on.

Don't confine yourself to a select group of friends, often known as a clique. Cliques by definition leave people out. Lock yourself into one, and you'll never know how many terrific friendships you may be missing.

Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.

to a church where people don't mind expressing themselves.

No more hiding. No more pretending to be something she wasn't. She would wear an older woman's clothes, but she would wear them in such a way that she was honest with herself, with others, and with God. She was a teenager who had been left behind, but she was also one who had seen what was right and acted upon it. She belonged to God now, and she would present herself to him as she really was.

Don't tell me this town 'aint got no heart

What's the matter with you? Huh? Huh?' 'Why can't you be normal?' 'Why do you wanna be so different?

On the contrary, she is one of us. Most decidedly. She is us more than we are us. She is, I think, who we really are. Or were.

Next thing he knew he was yanked out of bed and onto his feet. "Come on," whispered Beans, "we got somewhere to go." It did not occur to Palmer not to go along. Once the shock wore off, he realized what an honor had been granted him. Imagine: A month ago these guys ignored him except to tease him; now they snuck into his house and climbed into bed with him. Palmer LaRue. Amazing!

He loved to see them playing with his birthday present. Each thud of a foot said: We're kicking your soccer ball. We like you. You're one of us.

Henry. Whose streak, unlike Beans's, was meek, not mean. Who ran with Beans and Mutto. Who did what they did. But was different.

On the contrary, she is one of us. Most decidedly. She is more than we are us. She is, I think, who we really are. Or were...she's an earthling if there ever was one.' 'So it's not just an act?' said Kevin. 'An act? No. If anybody is acting, it's us.

And whenever she saw Palmer with them at school, she acted as if she did not know him. Palmer sensed that she was doing this for his sake.

I wish I was back in the sixth grade. I was important there. I'm nothing here. I'm a turd.

The price of peace had been high: expelling himself from the gang, proclaiming himself a traitor, banishing his beloved pet. For such a price, a peace should be excellent. Yet when Palmer reached for it, tried to taste it, it was not there.

The point is, in a group everybody acts pretty much the same, that's kind of how the group holds itself together.

If it was true that women and children might become communal property, then every child would have many fathers and mothers, innumerable brothers and sisters. It seemed to be too much to hope for. To belong to everyone!

For the love of Betsy, who talks like that? No wonder we were at the loser table.

Everyone in this town was a weirdo, that was a solid-gold fact, and it didn't matter because I wasn't alone anymore. I had the kitten.