Quotes that hit you right in the gut, take your breath and fuel your motivation? Yeah, those are the best ones. 

Some of the most powerful quotes I have come across are from books (shocker, I know). Most are more than a line that I highlight just because it’s pretty. There are a few that I lean heavily on and return to for reassurance.

I believe that people’s favorite quotes tell a lot about them. So this post will probably be one of my most vulnerable. 

At the same time, I encourage you to ask your friends about their favorite quotes, even if they’re not a book nerd. Sometimes it is better to understand their values better through someone else’s words: like a quote.

I also encourage you to find some quotes of your own. So here are a few of the quotes that get me right in the feels.

“You do not yield” – “Kingdom of Ash,” Sarah J. Maas

This is a big one for a lot of people, at least from what I’ve seen on BookTok and Instagram. But I never really got it until I came across it exactly yesterday. I was sitting in AP Lit, reading “Kingdom of Ash,” the last book in the “Throne of Glass” series, and there it was, punching me in the gut. 

I actually almost cried in class. This “you do not yield,” encompasses every encouragement I have needed with my struggle with mental health over the years. It comes to Aelin, the protagonist, at a time when she is experiencing tremendous pain, doubt and hopelessness, and this is what is gifted to her. This “you do not yield” that fuels her body and mind with the motivation to fight back.

Even though I didn’t come across this until yesterday, I have a feeling it will become one of my motivational sayings.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it’s not real?” – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” J.K. Rowling

An old favorite. This has many meanings for me, but the one I’m going to share has to do with stories. Everyone online likes to joke that reading is just staring at cut-up trees and hallucinating — basically saying that everything is in your head.

And yes, it is in your head, but again, why does that mean that it’s not real? Stories, even though they are made of imagination and intangible processes, are extremely real. They aren’t real in the sense that they physically exist, but because they mean something to people.

“One cannot be brave who has no fear” – “Renegades,” Marissa Meyer

This quote really brings into perspective the true meaning of bravery. Before, I had thought that being brave was never fearing anything. But through my own experience and this quote, I realized that it is actually being afraid and continuing anyway. It is an endurance instead of an absolute. 

I think this quote could be anybody’s mantra, because we all have something we are facing or something we are afraid of. 

Now that I have shared mine, I hope you take the time to think about what book quotes are meaningful to you. You might just learn something new about yourself.