Quotes from Nicholas Sparks

The mist starts to form as we stand close to one another. It is a distant fog that rises from the horizon, and I find that I grow fearful as it approaches. It slowly creeps in, enveloping the world around us, fencing us in as if to prevent escape. Like a rolling cloud, it blankets everything, closing, until there is nothing left but the two of us.

Man and wife were supposed to stay together because they'd made their vows in front of God and family.

Dear John, There's so much I want to say to you, but I'm not sure where I should begin. Should I start by telling you that I love you? Or that the days I've spent with you have been the happiest in my life? Or that in the short time I've known you, I've come to believe that we were meant to be together? I could say all those things and all would be true, but as I reread them, all I can think is that I wish I were with you now, holding your hand and watching your elusive smile.

America was in full swing now, all the papers said so, and people were rushing forward, leaving behind the horrors of war. She understood the reasons, but they were rushing, like Lon, toward long hours and profits, neglecting the things that brought beauty to the world.

We are not perfect. We make mistakes. We screw up but then we forgive and move forward.

When I was seventeen, my life changed forever . . .

It was a life, she eventually concluded, that had been lived in the middle ground, where contentment and love were found in the smallest details of people's lives. It was a life of dignity and honor, not without sorrows yet fulfilling in a way that few experiences ever were.

He was the kind of man everyone would fall in love with, even if they didn't want to.

Dawson, she knew, had saved Alan's life- but in the end, he'd saved Jared's as well. And for her that meant...everything. 'I gave you the best of me,' he'd told her once, and with every beat of her son's heart, she knew he'd done exactly that.

Everyone has crap in their background, everyone has things they wish they could undo. But most people don't go around doing their best to screw up their present lives because of it.

Why did you say you believed me ? In profile, he could see both the young woman she was becoming and the little girl he remembered. Because I trust you.

Three weeks ago, he'd seen hail fall from the sky, only to be followed minutes later by a spectacular rainbow that seemed to frame the azalea bushes. The colors, so vivid they seemed almost alive, made him think that nature sometimes sends us signs, that it's important to remember that joy can always follow despair. But a moment later, the rainbow had vanished and the hail returned, and he realized that joy was sometimes only an illusion.

It was a lesson that I would learn in time though it wasn't Hegbert who taught me.

I'd like to marry you, if you think that would be okay.

See, that was the problem in relationships when emotion began muddying the waters. It was as if (Lexie) expected him to do or say exactly the right thing at exactly the right time, whatever that was.

I have come to realize that destiny can hurt a person as much as it can bless him.

Tough toenails, tiger. What you want and what you get are usually two entirely different things.

Two cannibals were eating a comedian, and one of them turns to the other and asks, 'Does this taste funny to you?

It's easy to joke when you don't care any more. I'm not saying it didn't hurt me, because it did.

The past is the past. You cannot change it, but you can learn from it.

Katie smiled and turned away, knowing it wasn't an illusion or a figment of her imagination. She knew what she saw. She knew what she believed.

You know, the smallest thing can change a life. In the blink of an eye, something happens by chance - and when you least expect it - since we're on a course that you could have never planned, into a future you never imagined. Where will it take you? That's the journey of our lives: our search for the light. But sometimes, finding the light means you must past through the deepest darkness.

Because in the end, and no matter how hard it is, acceptance helps people move on with the rest of their lives.

Long-term relationship - the ones that matter - are all about weathering the peaks and the valleys.