Quotes from Catherine Ryan Hyde

Changing the laws of a country is not the same as changing its hearts and minds.

My threshold for human contact had worn painfully thin. I felt like a car that had been running its lights too long on battery alone. I felt fresh out of charge, and as though I needed to plug in for days before I could have one more conversation with one more human being.

People learned by what they experienced. It mattered little what anyone said to anyone.

I'm not saying I know it all. In one way, we've all just got the time since we got up this morning. But I've seen a lot of people walk a lot of roads. Some not so happy. And it makes them what they are. So if you run around putting a pillow under people to cushion their fall . . . well, I'm just not sure it's quite the favor we think it is.

When I dreamed about the time you would actually sleep with me, I thought there'd be some sleeping involved.

Everybody goes around missing all the best stuff because they don't want anything bad to happen. But then when something bad wants to happen it just does. Anyway. No matter how careful you're being.

I'd tell you to be careful, except for two things. One, it wouldn't do any good anyhow. And two, I think we tell each other that too much. Be careful. Don't get hurt. Don't take changes. Don't try anything. Don't feel. Might as well be telling each other not to be alive at all. Boils down to the same thing.

When somebody holds a view that seems to make no sense, know that it makes sense to them, but for reasons you don't know anything about yet. And I guess in a lot of cases,

It's like if someone had a loaded gun in your face. I don't know how else to describe how it felt to try to talk to my father. Even on a good day. If someone always has a loaded gun in your face, you weigh every word before you say it. You only dare say it if it might save you. But you're never sure, so there's this tendency to freeze. Say nothing at all.

Even if we had to go back, I decided it was worth it to ride that bus all the way out here. It was worth it just for Natalie to see the windmills. Even if she never saw anything like this again. Maybe at least she could hang on to the idea that there's something better out there, somewhere.

you can't change anybody's mind. The sooner I learned that, the happier my life would be, and now I felt like a happy life was a goal again for the first time in a long time.

So many times in life we think we see what we want. That we know what we want. Looking back through the wrong end of that scope, I sometimes wonder why we still believe we know anything at all.

The value of your life is your own choosing," Nathan

And then you notice the days are going by really fast. And they're all starting to look alike. And then you start to feel like this can't be it. This can't be all. This can't be . . . you know . . . a whole life. There has to be more.

Smart is overrated. Most of the harm done in this world is done by people who fancy themselves smart. And they are—book smart. But most really smart people have no sense. They value their brains too highly. I'd rather have someone with sense. And a little heart.

you're one of those people with set opinions on how you want the world to behave. Always trying to bend the world to fit your liking instead of the other way around. So then, once you make up your mind how you want something to be, you start losing the eyes to see what it really is.

After all, the only thing that hurts more than tears shed is tears unshed.

life is just a series of our own choices catching up with us.

Not a one of us can be everything somebody else wants us to be. Trouble comes when we try to pretend we can. Or when people see it like a betrayal. You know. That somebody won't meet all their needs. My mom used to say it's because we weren't put here on earth to take care of each other. And that it's silly to get mad at someone for letting you down when they're just being who they are. She said it's like getting mad at your dog for not being a cat.

It's like, if you love somebody. When they hurt you or let you down, you let 'em know you still love them. That's called unconditional love. Anybody can love somebody when they're making you happy. That requires no special talent. That's also how most people do it. But when you get a little wiser, you know you got to love somebody with all their faults. So,

I can live through everything or I can answer for everything, but sometimes both is just too much for one day.

it gets to be an addiction. You want to be OK right now, so you trade that for having a good life in the long run. It's a bad trade, but people do it all the time. That's all addiction really is. It's trading away the future so you can feel OK right now.

It makes no difference whether you believe all this or you don't. It not only makes no difference to me, but to anything. Things don't wait for you to believe them. They happen. God is not Tinkerbell. He does what he does whether you clap your hands or hide behind the comfort of your disbelief.

But some people don't want you to do what you think is right. Some people want you to do what they think is right.