For my quarter-life, I give you 25 of my all-time favorite lyrics. They are my favorite because they’re sweet, insightful, hilarious, or eerily true.

[one]
Your best friend always stickin’ up for you, even when I know you’re wrong.
(Drops of Jupiter, Train)

[two]
But someday we’ll all be old
And I’ll be so damn beautiful
(Paper Bag, Anna Nalick)

[three]
Well I hate to be a bother,
But it’s you and there’s no other, I do believe
You can call me naive but…
(Carbon Leaf, Life Less Ordinary)

[four]
She love to keep you in suspense, but you know she just wants to dance
Give a little heart and soul
Let her body lose control
Give a little oh oh ooh
(Give a Little, Hanson)

[five]
I remember the stupid things, the mood rings, the bracelets and the beads
Nickels and dimes, yours and mine, did you cash in all your dreams
You don’t dream for me, no (goodbye, goodbye) you don’t dream for me, no
But I still feel you pulse like sonar from the days in the waves
That girl is like a sunburn
I would like to say
The girl is like a sunburn
I would like to say
She’s like a sunburn
She’s like a sunburn
(Never Let You Go, Third Eye Blind)

[six]
It’s a sad, sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
(Not Ready to Make Nice, Dixie Chicks)

[seven]
I believe in the sand beneath my toes
The beach gives a feeling
An earthy feeling
I believe in the faith that grows
And the four right chords can make me cry
When I’m with you I feel like I could die
(Semi-charmed Life, Third Eye Blind)

[eight]
I would dig a hole all the way to China
unless of course I was there
and I’d dig my way home.
If by digging I could steal
The wind from the sails of the greedy men who ruled the world.
(Dreamgirl, Dave Matthews Band)

[nine]
Feeling alive all over again,
As deep as the sky, under my skin
Like being in love, she says
For the first time
(First Time, Lifehouse)

[ten]
Leave a hush fall on the movie crowd
Boy turns to girl and says I love you so (well, you know)
What I hear in here is violins
Strike up the music, lay on the music
Let the music be there too
(Music, James Taylor)

[eleven]
I took ya drivin’ down to Big Sur, down the coast of California
You had your head out of the window
and you stared out at the ocean
You never heard
the albums Graceland or Blue
I play them both for you
The songs of my youth
And make you cry love, cry out loving
Dance drunken to your heart’s beat
And kiss ya in the moonlight in the middle of the street
I know that we’ve both been here before
In another lifetime maybe more
(Make You fall In Love With Me, Brett Dennen)

[twelve]
What you doing for the rest of your life?
Cause you don’t want don’t wanna go
Singing hey mama don’t want no drama
Just a kiss before I leave
Hey lady don’t say maybe
You’re the one that I can believe
(Hey Mama, Mat Kearney)

[thirteen]
We were ring-around-the-rosy children
They were circles around the sun
Never give up, never slow down
Never grow old, never ever die young
(Never Die Young, James Taylor)

[fourteen]
You always tell me that is impossible
To be respected and be a girl
Why’s it gotta be so complicated?
Why you gotta tell me if I’m hated?
So please be careful with me, I’m sensitive
And I’d like to stay that way.
(I’m Sensitive, Jewel)

[fifteen]
Take your life
Plot it out in black and white
Well I never lived the dreams of the prom kings
And the drama queens
I’d like to think the best of me
Is still hiding
Up my sleeve
(No Such Thing, John Mayer)

[sixteen]
She said she didn’t believe
It could happen to me
I guess we’re all one phone call from our knees
We’re gonna get there soon
(Closer to Love, Mat Kearney)

[seventeen]
’cause every bit of land is a holy land
and every drop of water is a holy water
and every single child is a son or a daughter
of the one earth mama and the one earth papa, so
don’t tell a man that he can’t come here ’cause he got brown eyes and a wavy kind of hair,
And don’t tell a woman that she can’t go there
because she prays a little different to a God up there
(Hello Bonjour, Michael Franti & Spearhead)

[eighteen]
It happened fast in a flash just this evening
I hit the gas, horn blast, brakes screaming
Car crash, broken glass, broke my dreaming
I hit the dash so fast my ears are ringing
My sister’s on the right side just slightly leaning
I grabbed her hand hard until she started breathing
My brothers in the back jaw cracked from the beating
The breath in my chest has slipped and I’m sinking
Blinking through diamond spider webs of cracked glass
I’m trying to remember all the words you said in the past
Through the ash, siren screams and red beams
I hear you sing softly to me
(Renaissance, Mat Kearney)

[nineteen]
Mistreated, misplaced, misunderstood.
Miss ‘No way, it’s all good’, it didn’t slow me down.
Mistaken, always second guessing, underestimated.
Look, I’m still around.
Pretty, pretty please, don’t you ever, ever feel
Like you’re less than f*****’ perfect.
Pretty, pretty please, if you ever, ever feel like you’re nothing,
You’re f*****’ perfect to me
(F****** Perfect, Pink)

[twenty]
You’ve got opinions, man
We’re all entitled to ‘em, but I never asked
So let me thank you for your time, and try not to waste anymore of mine
And get out of here fast
I hate to break it to you babe, but I’m not drowning
There’s no one here to save
(King of Anything, Sara Bareilles)

[twenty one]
I’ll be like your medicine, you’ll take every dose of me
It’s going down on aisle 3. I’ll bag you like some groceries
And every time you think about it you gon’ want some more of me
(Love in this Club, Usher (feat. Young Jeezy))

[twenty two]
So your standing on a ledge,
It looks like you might fall.
So far down,
Or maybe you were thinking about jumping.
Now you could have it all,
If you learned a little patience
For though I cannot fly,
I’m not content to crawl
So give me a little credit,
Have in me a little faith
I want to be with you forever,
But tomorrow’s not too late
(I Am, Nine Days)

[twenty three]
You don’t have to believe me
and i continue on
you’ve still got the potential
that you’ve had all along
you don’t have to believe me when
you’re shaking what you got
but you sure better believe me when
i tell you your mind’s what’s hot.
(You Don’t Have to Believe Me, Eric Hutchinson)

[twenty four]
Closer than this life
Closer finally
Living for the only thing
You ever made complete
Oh, for the one thing
That you both did perfectly
(Closer, Better Than Ezra)

[twenty five]
I welcome the sun,
the clouds and rain,
the wind that sweeps the sky clean
and lets the sun shine again.
this is the most magnificent life has ever been.
here is heaven and earth
and the brilliant sky in between.
(Blessed, Brett Dennen)