Quotes from Isabel Allende

La verdadera amistad resiste el tiempo, la distancia y el silencio.

Barrabas came to us by sea, the child Clara wrote in her delicate calligraphy.

At the most difficult moments of my life, when it seemed that every door was closed to me, the taste of those apricots comes back to comfort me with the notion that abundance is always within reach, if only one knows how to find it.

You only have one life, but if you live it well, that's enough. The only reality is now, today. What are you waiting for to be happy?

He realized...that the loudest are the least sincere, that arrogance is a quality of the ignorant, and that flatterers tend to be vicious.

memory is fragile and the space of a single life is brief, passing so quickly that we never get a chance to see the relationship between events; we cannot gauge the consequences of our acts, and we believe in the fiction of past, present, and future, but it may also be true that everything happens simultaneously.

Esa noche creí que había perdido para siempre la capacidad de enamorarme, que nunca más podría reírme ni perseguir una ilusión. Pero nunca más es mucho tiempo.

My name is Eva, which means 'life,' according to a book of names my mother consulted. I was born in the back room of a shadowy house, and grew up amidst ancient furniture, books in Latin, and human mummies, but none of those things made me melancholy, because I came into the world with a breath of the jungle in my memory.

Todos nacemos felices. Por el camino se nos ensucia la vida, pero podemos limpiarla. La felicidad no es exuberante ni bulliciosa, como el placer o la alegría. Es silenciosa, tranquila, suave, es un estado interno de satisfacción que empieza por amarse a sí mismo.

Do you truly believe that life is fair, Senor de la Vega? -No, maestro, but I plan to do everything in my power to make it so.

a fixation is very stubborn: it burrows into the brain and breaks the heart. There are many fixations, but love is the worst.

Happiness is not exuberant or noisy, like pleasure or joy; it's silent, tranquil, and gentle; it's a feeling of satisfaction inside that begins with self-love.

She did not believe that the world was a vale of tears but rather a joke that God had played and that it was idiotic to take it seriously.

The slave who dances is free ... while he is dancing.

Pain is unavoidable, but suffering is optional.

Reading is like looking through several windows which open to an infinite landscape....For me life without reading would be like being in prison, it would be as if my spirit were in a straightjacket; life would be a very dark and narrow place.

Nice people with common sense do not make interesting characters. They only make good former spouses.

It bothers them that instead of taking on the role of abandoned lover, I have become a happy wife. They relish seeing strong women like you and me humiliated. They cannot forgive us that we triumphed where so many others fail...Courage is a virtue appreciated in a male but considered a defect in our gender. Bold women are a threat to a world that is out of balance, in favor of men. That is why they work so hard to mistreat and destroy us.

You are my angel and my damnation; in your presence I reach divine ecstasy and in your absence I descent to hell.

There are a lot of good people, Irina, but they keep quiet about it. It's the bad ones who make a lot of noise, and that's why they get noticed.

our demons lose their power when we pull them out of the depths where they hide and look them in the face in broad daylight.

A veces, para exorcizar los demonios de un recuerdo es necesario contarlo como un cuento

Happiness is pure kitsch; we come into the world to suffer and learn.

His calls for justice were lost at the mercy of the wind and human indifference.