Quotes from Susan Wiggs

There is more real wealth in a pound of honey, or a load of manure for that matter, than all the currency in the world. We often destroy the world's real wealth to create an illusion of wealth, confusing symbol and substance." —William Longgood, The Queen Must Die

Difficulty is a miracle in its first stage. —Amish proverb

she leaped down the porch steps to her car. There was no thought. No planning. Just action. When you get a call that your kid is in the ER, there can be no room for thinking. Just the deepest fear imaginable, the kind that gripped like a steel band around her chest.

There were few forces greater than the power of a fourteen-year-old's determination when she wanted something. A teenager would stop at nothing in order to get her way.

When she was five years old, Mem had given her a pair of faceless rag dolls in typical Plain dress. The dolls were faceless to emphasize the notion that everyone is the same in the eyes of God.

On his very worst day, each one of these men managed to summon his very best. Each one embodied the essence of courage. It is not the state of being unafraid, but the rare ability to confront fear.

The most common error a person tends to commit in pie making is to fail to let it cool in fresh air. If you cut into it straight out of the oven, the juice runs everywhere. People have no patience when it comes to pies.

He was the worst kind of liar, the kind who took hearts as hostages and broke them with impunity.

Be still. Be silent. Find the center of yourself.

He doesn't speak of love. It's just something he does. Something he is. Love is the something he does while other folks sit around talking about it.

The last dress in the wardrobe was loosely wrapped in thin tissue paper that tore away at the slightest touch. Isabel was intrigued by this one, a cocktail dress in peach-colored silk, embellished with a line of crystal bugle beads around the neckline, a fitted bodice and flaring skirt. In the glow of the bedside lamp, the dress was luminous and shimmering with a life of its own.

I see her in my dreams," he said. "Every night.

Falling for him was too easy. Falling in general was easy. It was the landing you had to watch out for.

stopped right in the middle of the path, cast a furtive glance left and right and then pressed his mouth in full lockdown mode upon hers. Ew.

I'm glad i found photography. It's a way to connect with the world.

Aw, Gran." Annie had been fighting tears from the moment she'd boarded the train from New York. "Please don't leave me." "I won't," she said with a gentle smile. "Keep me in your heart, and you'll always know where to find me.

Did you know a child laughs an average of three hundred times a day, and an adult just three?

Survival was a powerful driving force, stronger than hatred and love combined.

Here's what will happen to the dog," he said with exaggerated patience. "She'll be our pet for however long she's meant to be our pet. Nobody knows how long that's going to be.

the way you spend each day adds up to the way you spend your life.

They just started throwing these canisters. One of them hit me so I lobbed it back." "Nothing at all would have hit you if you'd been minding your business." "And nothing will change if nobody takes action against injustice. Remember when you and Mama took me to hear Dr. King speak? Remember what he said? 'We die when we refuse to stand up for justice.

But it's the nature—no, the duty—of a child to grow up and leave you. Doesn't seem fair, does it? The person you love most in the world is destined to leave you and break your heart.

a fight was never about the thing being fought over.

There, a simple headstone marked the grave of Eva Saloman Johansen, beloved wife and grandmother. Tess was intrigued to see a phrase in Hebrew characters. Her paternal grandmother had apparently been Jewish. Beside that was a marker for Erik Karl Johansen, inscribed, 'Measure his life not by its length but by the depths of joy he brought us. He jumped into life and never touched bottom. We will never laugh the same again.