Quotes from Anne Perry

We believe world peace is inevitable.

... She knew in her heart that to be without optimism, that core of reasonless hope in the spirit rather than the brain, was a fatal flaw, the seed of death.

Americans sometimes say to me that they have no class system themselves. All human beings have class systems. It can be based on a different thing in a different country, but the thing about breeding is, you can't buy it. You can't buy class.

I think it's a terrible thing to write and not enjoy it. It's a sad thing. But of course a lot of people do work because they need to eat. And we all need to eat, but that's not the only reason to work. You couldn't have paid me not to write.

The men who cannot laugh at themselves frighten me even more than those who laugh at everything.

We all try to forget what hurts us, it is sometimes the only way we can continue.

Please don't think so lightly of liking someone. It's terribly important. It is a kind of loving, you know, and one that frequently lasts a lot longer than romance. You can fall out of love, as well in. Most of us do, especially if you don't actually like the person as well. It doesn't always grow into love by any means, but sometimes it does.

Too many women waste their lives grieving because they do not have something other people tell them they should want. Whether you are happy or not depends to some degree upon outward circumstances, but mostly it depends how you choose to look at things yourself, whether you measure what you have or what you have not.

Be aware that you can truly help people only by aiding them to become what they are, not what you are. I have heard you say 'If I were you, I would do this, or that.' 'I' am never 'you'--and my solutions may not be yours.

The mountains are so beautiful they make me ache inside because the moment I look away I know I shall need to see them again. And I cannot spend the rest of my life standing on the spot staring at shifting sunlight and mist and shadows across the sea.

People only tell lies when the truth is disagreeable to them, or frightens them, or to cover sin.

Whether you are happy or not depends to some degree upon outward circumstances, but mostly it depends how you choose to look at things yourself, whether you measure what you have or what you have not.

To take for granted one's blessings is a damage to the soul, and in time one will lose them, simply from lack of care. One should never tire of nourishing and treasuring all that is lovely.

perhaps great sins start as simple weakness, and the consistent placing of self before others.

Can one be both barbarian of the soul and sophisticated of the mind?

It was not something you could call friendship; it was at once less and more. The sharing of such experiences created a bond and set them apart from all others. It was not something that could be told to another person. There were no words with a meaning both could understand which would impart the physical horror or the heights and depths of emotion.

Love is brave and generous and above all it springs from honor. In order to love someone else, you must first be true to yourself. Love is not two people wanting or needing what the other can give. --Hester Latterly

but old wounds don't stop aching. They are always under the surface, ready to remind one of the original injuries.

The very power of evil is that it is not recognizable to us most of the time. It is not repellent at all. It does not attack, it seduces.

Friendship eased the heart and the mind, but there were times when the touch of arms around you healed an ache within that nothing else reached.

Disillusion in an ache that eats into the dreams of goodness, of love, of any value that matters - even to the very belief in life.

What's always right?" "Kindness," Pitt answered with certainty. "Keeping your promises. Not giving up just because it gets hard. Owning up to your mistakes, and not blaming other people even if you would get away with it.

In working with the wounded at Gallipoli, the lead character comments, "Perhaps life was the nightmare and death the awakening.

We need our marks, our small illusions; few of us can bear to go naked into the world's gaze. And people will kill to keep their clothes.