Quotes from Elin Hilderbrand

I've always thought of mosaic as this big metaphor for my life," she says. "All these jagged, incongruous pieces…" She holds up a small shard of milky jade-green glass. "These are like the things that happen to you. But if it's laid out a certain way and if you take a step back from it, it makes sense.

The charitable acts that count the most, Greer believes, are those done without anyone knowing.

There is nothing more terrible, she has decided, than the ferocity with which humans can love.

A garden is not a matter of life or death. It is far more important than that.

Every life contains a novel.

But the secret to success for any bathroom," Lizbet says to Jill, "isn't how it looks; it's how it makes the guest look.

She spent seventy-seven dollars at Wayfair on a framed quote attributed to Socrates: The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

Being president of the United States is the most stressful, thankless job in the world and Margaret can't fathom why anyone would voluntarily pursue it.

There was the golden age, the years our children were nine, ten, eleven. Fourth and fifth grade....of course you never realize it's the golden age until it's over.

You're young," Mallory says. "And the worst thing about being young is not being able to appreciate that you're young because you aren't old enough to know any better.

When you're in love, every day is like a present you get to open.

Nothing was off-limits, nothing was deemed "too adult," and nothing took precedence over reading; it was considered the holiest activity a person could engage in.

Being responsible for her own happiness, she has realized, is a lonely proposition.

And that's the thing about marriage. It can look perfect to people from the outside but be utterly imperfect on the inside. The reverse is true as well. No one knows what goes on in a marriage except for the two people living in it.

Zack, who has a penchant for arcane knowledge, informs Ava that a family of a boy followed by a girl is known as the king's choice. There is the son to carry on the family name, and the daughter to marry off and create a dynasty.

Folded-over chips are preferable to flat chips—why is that? It's one of life's ten million mysteries.

Fear gripped her like hands around the neck, the way it could only happen in an unfamiliar room in the pitch black of night.

The worst thing about adultery was that it made you see your life for what it was: something that was nearly impossible to escape.

good person, a mom and a teacher, a reader and a thinker, the most generous friend in what she was willing to accept and forgive.

The body of water between Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket is the Muskeget Channel. "I

be present and celebrate the holiday instead of wishing it over. After all, one is given only a certain number of Christmases in one's life.

Having a sister doesn't always mean an automatic best friend.

They always stayed at the beach to enjoy the golden hour, that hour when the sun sank low enough to spangle the water and make everything look as if it had been dipped in honey.

She had thought that 'depression' would be like sitting in a rocking chair and not being able to make it move. She had thought it would descend over her like a fog, turning things fuzzy, coloring them gray. But depression was active, it paced back and forth wringing its hands. She couldn't stop thinking; she couldn't find her way free from apprehension.