Quotes By Letter: T

“By plucking her petals, you do not gather the beauty of the flower.”

-Rabindrath Tagore

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“When I stand before thee at the day's end, thou shalt see
my scars and know that I had my wounds and also my healing.”

-Rabindrath Tagore

Recommended by Hailey.

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“Sweet Ma tried to shape my mind, pounding it like dumpling dough. And the more she tried, the more I became like my mother, so she said. I was greedy, she warned, and could not fill my heart with enough pleasure, my stomach with enough contentment, my body with enough sleep. I was like a rice basket with a rat hole at the bottom, and thus could not be satisfied and overflow, nor could I be filled. I would never know the full depth and breadth of love, beauty, or happiness. She said it like a curse.

Because of her criticism, I acted as if I were even more deficient in feeling, particularly toward her. I found that a blank face and a bland heart were the very things that made Sweet Ma's eyebrows bulge to bursting. My reasoning was this: How could I be wounded when I didn't care? In time, I felt I was growing stronger and stronger. My legs no longer buckled, and I learned to hide from pain. I hid my deepest feelings so well I forgot where I had placed them.”

-Saving Fish From Drowning, Amy Tan

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“..I gorged myself... I forced spoonful after spoonful down my throat..later.. sat hunched.. retching back into the ice cream container.... wondering why it was eating something good could make me feel so terrible, while vomiting something terrible could make me feel so good.”

-The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

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“I almost aborted (my daughter), though. When I found out I was pregnant, I was furious. ...referred to (it) as my 'growing resentment' and I dragged M. down to the clinic so he would have to suffer through his too.”

-The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

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“That is the way it is with a wound. The wound begins to close in on itself to protect what is hurting so much. And once it is closed, you no longer see what is underneath, what started the pain.”

-The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

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“The next night, I lay straight on the bed next to him.... still didn't touch me ...the next night I took off my gown... He was scared and turned his face. He had no desire for me, but it was his fear that made me think he had no desire for any women. .. After more months had passed (his mom said) My son says he’s planted enough seeds for thousands of grandchildren. .. It must be you doing something wrong....she confined me to the bed so that her grandchildren's seeds would not spill out so easily.”

-The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

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“This is how a daughter honors her mother. It is shou so deep it is in your bones. The pain of the flesh is nothing. The pain you must forget. Because sometimes that is the only way to remember what is in your bones. You must peel off your skin, and that of your mother, and her mother before her. Until there is nothing. No scar, no skin, no flesh.”

-The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan

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“Beauty is terror.
Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it.
And what could be more terrifying and beautiful,
to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely?
To throw off the chains of being for an instant,
to shatter the accident of our mortal selves?”

-The Secret History, Donna Tartt

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“I think that when you want things so badly, it shows on your body...”

-The Chelsea Whistle, Michelle Tea

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“And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had.”

-Mad World, Tears For Fears

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“And I find it kinda funny
I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It's a very, very mad world mad world.”

-Mad World, Tears For Fears

Recommended by ronan.

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“When I am dead and over me bright April
Shakes out her rain-drenched hair,
Though you should lean above me broken-hearted,
I shall not care.

I shall have peace, as leafy trees are peaceful
When rain bends down the bough;
And I shall be more silent and cold-hearted
Than you are now.”

-I Shall Not Care, Sara Teasdale

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“My soul is a broken field
plowed by pain.”

-The Broken Field, Sara Teasdale

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“So scared that all my feelings
They up and leave me
I got so city girl on you
I go so crazy I don't know what to do.”

-City Girl, Tegan and Sara

Recommended by Shay.

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“I flip on the television
And watch sad movies
And look for sad sick people like me
You call me up, and let me know that
That my sick guilt is so unwelcome.”

-I Hear Noises, Tegan and Sara

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“I won't scream in my head
And let it isolate me.”

-I Won't Be Left, Tegan and Sara

Recommended by Shay.

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“I wake up exhausted - it's not morning
And it's back to sleep to re-dream me.”

-Wake Up Exhausted, Tegan and Sara

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“And the taste of dried-up hopes in my mouth
And a landscape of merry and desperate drought
Once I knew myself, and with knowing came love
I would know love again if I had faith enough
But too far is next spring and her jubilant shout
So angels, inside is the only way out.”

-Drought, Vienna Teng

Recommended by Shay.

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“Fear is the brightest of signs
The shape of the boundary you leave behind
So sing all your questions to sleep
The answers are out there in the drowning deep.”

-Harbour, Vienna Teng

Recommended by Shay.

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“In unending storms, we search for space to breathe
How our hearts are worn - we've come so far
In this desert storm, how we blossom and we cease
Tell your story now, we have so much to know
Shine with all the untold, hold the light given unto you
Find the love to unfold in this broken world.”

-Shine, Vienna Teng

Recommended by Shay.

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“She turns out the light,
Anticipating night falling tenderly around her
And watches the dusk - the words won't come
She carries the act so convincingly
The fact is sometimes she believes it
That she can be happy the way things are,
Be happy with the things she's done .”

-The Tower, Vienna Teng

Recommended by Shay.

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“For I dipped into the Future, far as
human eye could see;
Saw the vision of the world, and all
the wonder that would be.”

-Locksley Hall, Lord Alfred Tennyson

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“Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.”

-Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Lord Alfred Tennyson

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“'I am half sick of shadows,' said the Lady of Shallott.”

-The Lady Of Shallott, Lord Alfred Tennyson

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