When you least expected it, life surprises you.

The incredible history of my feelings and my thoughts could fill up a dozen leather-bound books. But the story of my life - my behavior, my actions - that’s a slim volume. I’ve always thought it would be terribly boring. What would be in it? Chapter One: My Childhood. I was born, I cried. Chapter Two: The Rest: I maintained myself.

--Wallace Shawn

"We live our lives, do whatever we do, and then we sleep — it’s as simple and ordinary as that. A few jump out of windows or drown themselves or take pills; more die by accident; and most of us, the vast majority, are slowly devoured by some disease or, if we’re very fortunate, by time itself. There’s just this for consolation: an hour here or there when our lives seem, against all odds and expectations, to burst open and give us everything we’ve ever imagined, though everyone knows these hours will inevitably be followed by others, far darker and more difficult. Still, we cherish the city, the morning; we hope, more than anything, for more. Heaven only knows why we love it so."

--Michael Cunningham

"The trouble with life isn't that there is no answer, it's that there are so many answers."

--Ruth Benedict

"I'm thinking that it might actually be possible for things to work out sometimes. Definitely not everything and maybe not the way you imagined. But sometimes, when you least expected it, life surprises you."

--Susane Colasanti, 'When It Happens'

"If there is no passion in your life, then have you ever really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you, and you will find that great things will happen for you, to you, and because of you."

--T. Alan Armstrong

I mainly like life to be peaceful with a few loud noises thrown in to remind me to be grateful for the quiet I have.

--Story People