Quotes from Eileen Goudge

Sylvie heard her mama's voice in her head as if she were in the next chair. A real lady wears a cloth coat as if it were her best mink, and tosses her mink about as if it were cloth. If only she could be here now, see Sylvie's own Russian sable hanging in the anteroom. Mama, with her one good black coat, relined again and again over the years.

Why was it that the only choices that truly mattered were the ones you felt least prepared to make?

Man attains not by himself, nor woman by herself, but like the one-winged birds of the ancient legend, they must rise together.

blue-and-white helmet, and the muscles in his powerful dark forearms knotting as

Is loving someone enough? he wondered. Or is God like Stromboli, making us think we're in control of our fate while turning us all into jackasses?

My firstborn, Michael, nearly died in his first moments of life, and he was sickly for some weeks after. I recall clearly those anxious days, peering into his incubator. I remember aching to hold him, and yet, superstitiously, I feared that if I made that connection, if I dared to love him more than I already did, he would be snatched from me.

and in the wedge of light from the hallway she thought she saw something flicker

on the wall outside. And this friend of hers, this

Besos desesperados que hablaban de finales, más que de comienzos

When a man has been burned once with hot soup he forever after blows upon cold rice"; so these men of China will think long before trusting again a foreigner with their silver.

feel ridiculous," she muttered. "And I feel like a jerk for getting thrown

You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will, But the scent of roses will hang round it still. Thomas Moore

A woman growing stronger with age, rather than weaker. A woman who now had more than the faded remnants of youthful prettiness. A woman with a good head, who was finally learning how to use it.

I'm afraid, she thought. When there's someone to cling to, I'll cling. And I'll grow weak again, like roses unable to stand free, once trained to a trellis.

Something dies, but it's never really all gone. In our hearts, there's always a little piece left. And it can bloom again.

In a world where Murphy's Law reigned, be prepared for all contingencies at all times.

how grateful we are when our world is falling apart for even the smallest reprieves. A gentle touch. A kind word. Forgiveness.

jungle seemed to leap out at Brian in a Technicolor

you can love more than one person, each love with its own subtle shadings, one maybe stronger but not necessarily canceling out the other.

The snake charmer should not touch the serpents before his child's eyes, knowing that the child will try to imitate him in all things.

It's tough, Rose, being the only one responsible for another person's happiness. No one should ever be the only one.

I guess I'd rather remember the good things than throw them all out with the bad.

They loved who they'd each been, and who they might have been … not who they were now.

She had come to the end with Brian, and there was only bittersweet nostalgia.