Right now I want a word that describes the feeling that you get—a cold sick feeling, deep down inside—when you know something is happening that will change you, and you don't want it to, but you can't stop it. And you know, for the first time, for the very first time, that there will now be a before and an after, a was and a will be. And that you will never again quite be the same person you were.

—Jennifer Donnelly in A Northern Light

About Jennifer Donnelly

Portrait of Jennifer Donnelly

Jennifer Donnelly (born August 16, 1963) is an American writer best known for the young adult historical novel A Northern Light.

More quotations from Jennifer Donnelly

There is only one thing I fear now—love. For I have seen it and I have felt it and I know that it is love, not death, that undoes us.

—Jennifer Donnelly in Revolution

Bravery is feeling fear but doing the thing anyway.

—Jennifer Donnelly in The Wild Rose

action doing fear bravery

He had known the rarest of things—love, real love—he'd held it in his hand and he'd thrown it away. What was left for him? A lifetime of second-bests.

—Jennifer Donnelly in The Tea Rose

feeling love knowledge

More quotations tagged with “change”

You have to look at what you have right in front of you, at what it could be, and stop measuring it against what you've lost.

—Jonathan Tropper in This is Where I Leave You

now presence change loss

The thing you are ripening toward is the fruit of your life. It will make you bright inside, no matter what you are outside. It is a shining thing.

—Stewart Edward White

life progress change growth fruit

Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety.

—James Baldwin

knowledge safety identity change world

Have patience! In time, even grass becomes milk.

—Charan Singh

patience time change grass milk

Stop thinking this is all there is.… Realize that for every ongoing war and religious outrage and environmental devastation and bogus Iraqi attack plan, there are a thousand counter-balancing acts of staggering generosity and humanity and art and beauty happening all over the world, right now, on a breathtaking scale, from flower box to cathedral.… Resist the temptation to drown in fatalism, to shake your head and sigh and just throw in the karmic towel.… Realize that this is the perfect moment to change the energy of the world, to step right up and crank your personal volume; right when it all seems dark and bitter and offensive and acrimonious and conflicted and bilious… there's your opening. Remember magic. And, finally, believe you are part of a groundswell, a resistance, a seemingly small but actually very, very large impending karmic overhaul, a great shift, the beginning of something important and potent and unstoppable.

—Mark Morford

war humanity beauty religion change world art temptation generosity magic resistance environment fatalism

History

8 Dec 2014 Added