Joan Bauer Quotes

My grandma always said that God made libraries so that people didn't have any excuse to be stupid.

...Difficult relationships come into our lives for a reason. No one would choose them, certainly. But if we let them, they can teach us how to be flexible with others and more forgiving.

I'll tell you something about tough times. They just about kill you, but if you decide to keep working at them, you'll find your way through.

I'm working hard to have a good life. You don't need fancy things to feel good. You can hug a puppy. You can buy a can of paint and surround yourself with color. You can plant a flower and watch it grow. You can decide to trust people, the right people. You can decide to start over and let other people start over, too.

You've got to love yourself with all your short comings, and you've got to love the world no matter how bad it gets.

When you have something so important, something that you'll stay awake for, something you know that you were designed to do, well, it's worth getting a few dark circles, don't you think?

We read to learn and to grow, to laugh, to be motivated, and to understand things we've never been exposed to. We read for strength to help us when we feel broken, discouraged or afraid. We read to find hope. We read because we're not just made up of skin and bones, and a deep need for chocolate, but we're also made up of words, words which describe our thoughts and what's hidden in our hearts.

Like my grandmother always said, 'you never know the blessings that come from suffering.

A heart will say amazing things if it's given half a chance.

Words are such powerful things. We can rip somebody apart with them, we can write words down that can forever hurt another person. We can use them to tell stories and lies. We can misquote them and change what other people said to make ourselves look good.

Sometimes you've got to shout the truth and wake people up.

Almost. It’s a big word for me. I feel it everywhere. Almost home. Almost happy. Almost changed. Almost, but not quite. Not yet. Soon, maybe. I’m hoping hard for that.

when hope gets released in a place, all kinds of things are possible

Sometimes the best thing that can happen to a person is to have a puppy lick your face.

You don't know which way a thing will come at you, but you need to welcome it with your whole heart which ever way it arrives.

When we don't have the words chocolate can speak volumes.

You don't understand how much light you have until the lights go out.

...It isn't the problems along the way that make us or break us. It's how we learn to stand and face them that makes the difference.

When the going gets tough, the tough get a librarian.

Mountains draw you to a deeper place in yourself

Staring down hard truth takes guts.

And we learned that you don't have to be famous or rich or physically healthy to be a leader. You just have to try to be a true person. We learned that helping other people brings out the good in everybody.

Librarians understand about power - they know how to find anything.

I hope you'll have the kind of life where what you stand for is so important that it makes some people outright hostile. You won't know how strong your beliefs really are until you have to defend them.

The problem with the heart is how it can have so many opposite feelings coursing through it all at the same time. It's really an inconsistent thing- appreciating something one minute and hating it the next.