ASHLEY FREY - REED

40 Times Sarah Dessen Taught Us The Beauty Of Happiness Hurting And Healing

We were willing to do so much for the people we loved, even if it meant hurting 
Kirsten Corley
August 18, 2016
“I am coming to terms with the fact that loving someone requires a leap of faith, and that a soft landing is never guaranteed.”
— Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby
Tagged: Love, Leap of Faith, Trust, Taking Chances
“'Two a.m.' He swallowed, then said, 'You know. The person you can call at two a.m. and, no matter what, you can count on them. Even if they're asleep or it's cold or you need to be bailed out of jail... they'll come for you. It's like, the highest level of friendship.’”
— Sarah Dessen, What Happened to Goodbye
Tagged: Friendship, Love
“Needing was so easy: it came naturally, like breathing. Being needed by someone else, though, that was the hard part.”
— Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key
Tagged: Being Needed
“He was not my boyfriend. On the other hand, he wasn't just a friend either. Instead, our relationship was elastic, stretching between those two extremes depending on who else was around, how much either of us had to drink, and other varying factors. This was exactly what I wanted, as commitments had never really been my thing. And it wasn't like it was hard, either. The only trick was never giving more than you were willing to lose.”
— Sarah Dessen, Lock and Key
Tagged: Fear Of Commitment
“The chances we take, knowing no better, to fall or to stand back and hold ourselves in, protecting our hearts with the tightest of grips...”
— Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby
Tagged: Taking Chances, Falling In Love, Holding Back
“And love is needing someone. Love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you.”
— Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby
Tagged: Love, Love Truths
“Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, a place, or even a person. No matter what else has changed in you or the world, that one song stays the same, just like that moment. Which is pretty amazing, when you actually think about it.”
— Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
Tagged: Music, Memories, Songs
“But you only get so many do-overs in this life, so many chances to, if not change your past, alter your future.”
— Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
Tagged: Life Truths, Do-overs, opportunities
“But if something was really important, fate made sure it somehow came back to you and gave you another chance... Events conspired to bring you back to where you'd been. It was what you did then that made all the difference: it was all about potential.”
— Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
Tagged: Life Truths, Fate, Second Chances
“I just think that some things are meant to be broken. Imperfect. Chaotic. It's the universe's way of providing contrast, you know? There have to be a few holes in the road. It's how life is.”
— Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
Tagged: Life Truths
“It's you I've thought of when I'm at my weakest, and you who have pulled me through.”
— Sarah Dessen, Dreamland
Tagged: Thank You
“We were willing to do so much for the people we loved, even if it meant hurting ourselves. Maybe that, in the end, was what love--all kinds-- was really about.”
— Sarah Dessen, The Moon And More
Tagged: Love, Love Hurts
“One summer and one boy, and suddenly...things weren’t the same.”
— Sarah Dessen, That Summer
Tagged: Summer Love
“Some people, they can't just move on, you know, mourn and cry and be done with it. Or at least seem to be. But for me... I don't know. I didn't want to fix it, to forget. It wasn't something that was broken. It's just... something that happened. And like that hole, I'm just finding ways, every day, of working around it. Respecting and remembering and getting on at the same time.”
— Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
Tagged: Death, Mourning, Crying
“That was the hard thing about grief, and the grieving. They spoke another language, and the words we knew always fell short of what we wanted them to say.”
— Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
Tagged: Grief, Death
“Home wasn't a set house, or a single town on a map. It was wherever the people who loved you were, whenever you were together. Not a place, but a moment, and then another, building on each other like bricks to create a solid shelter that you take with you for your entire life, wherever you may go.”
— Sarah Dessen, What Happened to Goodbye
Tagged: Missing, Homesickness, Explore Your Mind, Expat Life, Relocation, travel, Togetherness
“There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment.”
— Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
Tagged: True Love, Love, romance, Heartbeat
“All I'd ever wanted was to forget. But even when I thought I had, pieces had kept emerging, like bits of wood floating up to the surface that only hint at the shipwreck below”
— Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
Tagged: Utterly Heartbreaking, SD Quotes, Relationship Advice, Loss, Heartbreak
“It was terrible and awful when someone left you. You could move on, do the best you could, but an ending was an ending. No matter how many pages of sentences and paragraphs of great stories led up to it, it would always have the last word.”
— Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride
Tagged: Utterly Heartbreaking, Loss, Heartbreak, Love, Breakups
“Sometimes a question can hurt more than an answer”
— Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride
Tagged: Sarah Dessen Quotes, Sarah Dessen, Questions, Answers
“Because this is what happens when you try to run from the past. it doesn't just catch up: it overtakes, blotting out the future, the landscape, the very sky, until there is no path left except that which leads through it, the only one that can ever get you home.”
— Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
Tagged: Just Listen, Past and Future, Mistakes, Regret
“And guys don't get attached, guys don't give themselves over completely, and guys lie. That's why they should be handled with great trepidation, not trusted, and held at arm's length whenever possible.”
— Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby
Tagged: Sarah Dessen Quotes, Sarah Dessen, Relationships
“You should never be surprised when someone treats you with respect, you should expect it.”
— Sarah Dessen, Keeping the Moon
Tagged: Sarah Dessen Quotes, Sarah Dessen, Respect, Deserve
“Holding people away from you, and denying yourself love, that doesn't make you strong. if anything, it makes you weaker. Because you're doing it out of fear.”
— Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby
Tagged: This Lullaby, Relationships, Love, Hiding, Fear
“What you need, what you deserve, is a guy who adores you for what you are. Who doesn't see you as a project, but a prize. you know?”
— Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
Tagged: Deserve Better, Relationships, Sarah Dessen Quotes
“But I'd long ago learned not to be picky in farewells. They weren't guaranteed or promised. You were lucky, more than blessed, if you got a good-bye at all.”
— Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
Tagged: goodbye, Guaranteed, Farewell, Endings
“I have to admit, an unrequited love is so much better than a real one. I mean, it's perfect... As long as something is never even started, you never have to worry about it ending. It has endless potential.”
— Sarah Dessen, The Truth About Forever
Tagged: Unrequited Love, Heartbreak, Relationships Ending
“Because you can never go from going out to being friends, just like that. It's a lie. It's just something that people say they'll do to take the permanence out of a breakup. And someone always takes it to mean more than it does, and then is hurt even more when, inevitably, said ‘friendly' relationship is still a major step down from the previous relationship, and it's like breaking up all over again. But messier.”
— Sarah Dessen, This Lullaby
Tagged: Just Friends, Pain, hurt
“Because a song can take you back instantly to a moment, or a place, or even a person. no matter what else has changed in you or the world, that one song stays the same, just like that moment.”
— Sarah Dessen, Just Listen
Tagged: Just Listen, Sarah Dessen, Moments, Healing, Passage Of Time
“Oh darling, don't be bitter. It's the first instinct of the weak.”
— Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride
Tagged: Sarah Dessen Quotes, Sarah Dessen, Weakness, Strength And Courage