Quotes from Mary Balogh

Constance had joined him at the breakfast

Suffering can kill. Not always physically. But it can kill dreams and it can deaden hope and the will to live.

I always seem to be so cozy with my own company that I rarely think of going out.

Why would forgiveness be of any value if it were reserved only for forgivable offenses?

Where would we go?' she asked. 'Far, far away.' His eyes dipped to her lips when she moistened them with her tongue. 'Ah.' Her voice was a breathless whisper. 'The very best place to go.

And then, when I was at my lowest ebb, you came. And you somehow coaxed me into talking to you as though you were a trusted confidant. And then you flirted with me. For a few moments you bore me off with you to the sunshine above the clouds in a hot air balloon, wrapped together in warm furs and bound for a place far, far away. And then you kissed me.

Was the reality quite what he had been telling himself it was?

Life is always like that, he said gently. We are what we are because of what has happened to us in the past. We cannot change that and we should not wish to. I love you as you are, Elizabeth. Perhaps I would not love you as well if you had not met and loved and lost Hetherington. Perhaps the experience has given you the air of maturity and serenity that I so admire in you. Give me your future, my dear. I do not ask for the past.

She wanted so badly to believe him. She sat on the edge of her bed and closed her eyes. And she realized what had been happening to her over the past weeks. He had been turning—so gradually that she had scarcely noticed the transition—from her nightmare into her dream. Because

Mentimos para convencer al mundo, y para convencernos a nosotros mismos, de que somos algo que no somos...

It is stronge how smells can bring back vivid memories.

Pero el pasado no se puede cambiar. Solo podemos controlar un poco el futuro.

Ah, these double meanings," she said. "Who invented the English language, I wonder? He did not do a stellar job of it, whoever he was.

We diminish ourselves too," she said at last, "when feeling sorry for someone who has done a dreadful wrong leads us to excuse him and simply hope he will mend his ways. Feeling sorry for someone but acknowledging that justice ought nevertheless to be done is more appropriate to moral beings.

Love wasn't about reasons. It wasn't about admiring fine qualities. Love was a language all on its own, composed of gestures that seemed incomprehensible, perhaps even pointless, to the outside observer. Speaking

Are you afraid of the storm, by the way? I have two perfectly free arms with which to shelter you if you are.

having a dream and being on the journey to fulfilling it sometimes brings more happiness than actually achieving it. We have a habit, do we not, of thinking happiness is a future state if only this and that condition can be met. And so much of life passes us by without our realizing how happy we can be in this present moment, or how nearly happy.

Forever is not granted to any of us," the duchess said. "Even tomorrow is not granted as by right. Any of us can go at any moment.

openness and truth between partners were necessary if the marriage was to have a chance of bringing them any sort of happiness.

It was beginning to feel like an almost familiar place to be. But perhaps hitting this new low had something to be said for it, she thought now, this morning, after she had awoken and realized in some surprise that she had slept for several hours. At least now there was no further down to go. And

Sometimes one feels the need of a word more powerful than love, or at least one more exclusive to the love of one's heart.

Did people... really kiss like that? She had had NO idea. She had imagined being kissed, and in her imagination she had been swept away by the sheer romance of the meeting of lips. In her naivete she had not considered the possibility that a kiss, as a prelude to sexual activity, might have powerful effects on parts of her body, in fact, even parts she had been only half aware of possessing. She ached and throbbed in all sorts of unfamiliar places

She was now eight-and-twenty, with no idea how to be happy except in brief moments, and no idea how to create happiness about her. She only knew how to retreat inward to avoid pain.

There are voices that are lovely for various reasons or annoying for other reasons [...]