Quotes from Mary Balogh

She was in the presence of a stranger, of a man she had never seen before, yet one she had known all her life and perhaps even before that.

And she felt something she had not felt in years, something she had thought long, long dead in herself.

She might have said yes. It was a shameful admission to have to make even in the privacy of her own thoughts. Perhaps especially there. He exerted a very powerful magic over her. Even more powerful than when she had first known him.

You do not know me. I have no desire either to explain or to justify myself to you.

Each of us can do only what is within his power. If we dwell on our inability to solve the world's problems, our only possible recourse is despair. Despair accomplishes nothing.

sometimes we have no choice but to be selfish if we are to . . . survive" Excerpt From Someone to Hold

They had told each other their stories, yet had failed to understand what had happened. And they had parted. It was all over. But why should that be? They had loved each other passionately six years before, had defied their families in order to marry, and had grieved for each other ever since. They loved and wanted each other now. Why should they be apart forever? Had they not suffered enough?

She was waltzing in a man's arms and smiling at him and enjoying every moment and dreaming of him as he had once been—and of herself as she had once been. She was being seduced and she was allowing it to happen just as if she had no will of her own, no character or principles of her own. Just as if she were that same naive, heedless girl and he was that same flawed golden boy.

Your dog has not lost any time in catching up on his beauty sleep." "Just do not utter any word that begins with w," she said, "especially with the letters a-l-k attached. You would soon discover how deeply asleep he is.

Miss Daisy Morrison, behaving so scandalously on her very first public appearance among the beau monde, would not easily be forgiven. But of course a

Life is fraught with risks," she said. "All we can do to guard against them is make considered choices. Or we can make no choices at all and remain static in life. Even that is not really possible or without danger, though. Life changes about us and for us whether we wish it or not.

What had happened in the last few minutes had been so totally unexpected and so completely agonizing that she did not know quite how to cope at present.

Love me, she whispered. Go on loving me, Piers. Don't stop. Never, he promised her with his eyes.

I am going to learn it if I must die in the attempt.

It is the gentleman's job to match his pace and his step to the lady's. men do not have. All the power in the world, you see, despite what women often believe.

No, she must not begin to doubt. She hated him. She hated him because he had brought turmoil into her life again. And emotion. And bitter regret for all that might have been. She hated him.

He would be the very last person she would want to see during the rest of her lifetime.

We all have our own separate destinies to live out

Tomorrow she would think about her new problems, for, truth to tell, she had merely exchanged one nasty difficulty for another.

If only she had not gone to London for that particular Season when she was eighteen. If only she had not attended that particular ball at its start. If only . . . But life was made up of seemingly small, unimportant, chance events that together created the pattern of one's existence. There was no changing the pattern of hers. It had led her to this very difficult moment.

But she had to try. Her own love for Robert was a strong pain that she would have to bear for the rest of her life if she must. But if there was a chance that he loved her too and that their separation had not been of their own making, then she felt compelled to try to make possible a reconciliation. She had to put every ounce of effort into the attempt.

He sat back on the seat and looked at her averted face. She was a far more complex person than he had ever dreamed. A wounded person. One who for some reason he did not understand had never been whole, and never free.

Henry noticed the gleam in his eyes . . . she had decided that it was definitely a sign that he was amused. He never showed any other sign.

Do take a break soon, James. Too much work cannot be good for the health.