Quotes About Struggle

That's such bullshit, Mythology repeated by parents because it lets them force their kids into sports and push them too hard by pretending that in the end it will pay off with the holy scholarship. You know how many kids get a free ride? Hardly any. Like, maybe fourteen.' -Finn (165)

I'd love to stay and chat, but my feet won't let me. I walk home instead of taking the bus. I unlock the front door and walk straight up to my room, across the rug, and into my closet without even taking off my backpack. When I close the closet door behind me, I bury my face into the clothes on the left side of the rack, clothes that haven't fit for years. I stuff my mouth with old fabric and scream until there are no sounds left under my skin.

Superheroes work the hardest when things get tough.

You're not dead, but you're not alive, either. You're a wintergirl, Lia-Lia, caught in between the worlds.

We're all born to fight, but few are ever trained. Instead, they tell us Be nice.

What am I afraid of? Why can't I even want to get better? When am I me and how do I know that and who would I be if I did what they want? How did I get like this?

The nasty voices are always on call.

I am on top of the highest mountain. The icy ground is shaking, an earthquake, the world beneath me opening up with fire, steel arms ready to pull me down. I have to move. I can't stay here anymore. I throw myself down the mountain and open my mouth.

I avoid the drama of the girls still neck-deep in the snow, running away from the pain as fast as they can. I hope they figure it out.

I HAD THOUGHT ONLY SLAVERY DREADFUL, BUT THE STATE OF A FREE NEGRO APPEARED TO ME NOW EQUALLY SO AT LEAST, AND IN SOME RESPECTS EVEN WORSE, FOR THEY LIVE IN CONSTANT ALARM FOR THEIR LIBERTY. —OLAUDAH EQUIANO, MARINER AND FORMER SLAVE

He's finally admitting how desperate things are, but he doesn't think treatment will work.' 'Why not?' 'You don't want to get better. He says nothing will work until you want to be healthy and have a real life.

Now I knew. I would fight the eagle and the chains and that mountain as long as I had breath.

I shook from the effort of holding myself still, clutching the crumpled paper. Momma said we had to fight the evil inside us by overcoming it with goodness. She said it was a hard thing to do, but it made us worthy. I breathed deep to steady myself.

The fight simmers gently on the back of the stove all afternoon, the bubbles rising up and popping, ingredients falling to the bottom, then surfacing again. It doesn't boil over until the sun sets.

When you're alive, people can hurt you. It's easier to crawl into a bone cage or a snowdrift of confusion. It's easier to lock everybody out.

To us today, it seems completely hypocritical to fight a war for "liberty and freedom" when 20 percent of your population is in chains. People back then saw the hypocrisy too. It made some of them uncomfortable, but not uncomfortable enough to change the law, not right away. Vermont abolished slavery on July 8, 1777, when it adopted its state constitution. After the Revolution, the other states in the North gradually required slave owners to free their slaves.

Life was a battle, and Mother a tired and bitter captain. The captain I had to obey.

Laurie Halse Anderson

I don't know anything. My trees suck.

Now you are burnt-out husks, your spirits haggard, sere, always breeding over your wanderings long and hard, your hearts never lifting with any joy - you've suffered far too much.

You're not dead, but you're not alive either. You're a wintergirl, Lia-Lia

The snow drifts into our zombie mouths crawling with grease and curses and tobacco flakes and cavities and boyfriend/girlfriend juice, the stain of lies. For one moment we are bot failed tests and broken condoms and cheating on essays; we are crayons and lunch boxes and swinging so high our sneakers punch holes in the clouds. For one breath everything feels better.

The only way to achieve freedom is to fight for it.

What are these scars from? she asked. They're battle wounds, I replied. She looked at me for a long time. Who were you battling? Myself.