God, he suddenly understood, was love in its purest form, and in these last months with his children, he had felt His touch as surely as he had heard… - Nicholas Sparks

...he realized that the same thing that made women initially attractive to him--their need to be taken care of--was the very thing that eventually signaled he end of the relationship. How did that old saying go? If you've been divorced once, you might be right in thinking your ex was the problem. If you've been divorced three times? Well, folks, the problem is most definitely you. Granted, he hadn't been divorced, but the point was well taken.

I fell in love with her when we were together, then fell deeper in love with her in the years we were apart.

She was, in other words, the kind of girl who made the rest of us look bad, and whenever she glanced my way, I couldn't help but feel guilty, even though I hadn't done anything wrong.