For my purposes, epigraphs are defined as quotations at the beginning of a text, intended to suggest its themes. Below are the same epigraphs that are at the beginning pages of my physical journal. Perhaps they reveal more about me than I myself can.
You never know what the outcome is, but the truth is always the best place to start.
— Julian Assange, Wikileaks creator.
We've all got an expiration date. Today is mine — I'm at peace with that.
- Exit Note by Dorian Bridges.
Dying is easy, young man, living is harder.
— Right Hand Man (Hamilton).
Are you satisfied with an average life?
— MARINA.
If you hold on, you're going to be okay. I promise you, the life you want is out there for you.
— Barry Loukaitis.
TV taught me how to feel/Now real life has no appeal.
— Oh No! by MARINA.
Body, forgive me.
— Relapse by Blythe Baird.
Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
— Seneca.
Down the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.
— Piano by D.H. Lawrence.
I died to be the white ghost/Of the man that I was meant to be.
— Ghost by Badflower.
The slow psychic weight of doom settled over me.
— The Liar's Club by Mary Karr.
I am not sorry, merely ashamed.
— Educated by Tara Westover.
Sleep is good, death is better; but of course, the best thing would to have never been born at all.
—Heinrich Heine.
Finally I discovered I was sick of this town and everything in it.
— Hannah (13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher).
My body is burning with the shame of not belonging.
— Warson Shire.
Imperfection is the mark of our tribe, our secret sign.
— The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese.
I'm not afraid of God./I am afraid of man.
— Savages by MARINA.
Persecuted and tortured as I am and have been, can death be any to me?
— Victor (Frankenstein by Mary Shelley).
God is in your typewriter.
— A priest to Anne Sexton.
The optomist believes we live in the best of all realities. The pessimist fears this is true.
— Frederick Chilton (NBC Hannibal).
Genuis is no guarantee of wisdom.
— Robert Strauss (Oppenheimer, 2023).
Life, although it may only be the accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.
— The Daemon (Frankenstein by Mary Shelley).
