Quotes from Nancy Atherton

A woman without a past is like a fruitcake without brandy—insipid!

Helplessness in the face of a child's suffering is the curse of parenthood.

Fairy tales, as Nell had said, are always complicated.

Maybe, when all was said and done, that was where love began and what kept it alive: the simple, everyday act of paying attention.

The Handsome Prince Handbook is mute on the subject of chronic workaholism—Prince Charming, apparently, knew how to delegate—and I didn't know where else to turn for help. What do you do when life begins to go wrong and you've used up all three wishes?

They were tales of commonplace courage and optimism, for I knew from my own experience that everyday virtues endure best, and that quiet courage is worth more than the grandest derring-do.

A woman without a past is like a fruitcake without brandy—insipid!

When I learned of Aunt Dimity's death, I was stunned. Not because she was dead, but because I had never known she'd been alive.

As soon as men decide that all means are permitted to fight an evil, then their good becomes indistinguishable from the evil that they set out to destroy. —Christopher Dawson, The Judgment of Nations (1942)

knowing full well that I looked like something any self-respecting cat would refuse to drag in.

A decent world is built upon small acts of kindness.

God's heart is big enough to hold people of all faiths and races.

The stories featured a heroine who was, like Beth, blessed with the gift of easy laughter. They were tales of commonplace courage and optimism, for I knew from my own experience that everyday virtues endure best, and that quiet courage is worth more than the grandest derring-do. Thus "Aunt Dimity" was born, a heroine for the common woman.

It was a small thing, perhaps, but great changes begin with small things.

think of kindness as a ripple that spreads outward. If you wish to make the world a better place, send out as many ripples as you can.

Recognize your limitations and rejoice in them!

the writing is writ large on the wall: Mother Earth will continue to punish us with floods, famines, and fires until we learn to behave as custodians of the natural world rather than as its conquerors.

There's nothing remotely glamorous about waiting hand and foot on a fusspot like Opal, but what a pinched and useless life we'd lead if our only goal was glamour.

Looking back on it, I suspect that we were trying to keep the world of our letters apart from the world in which we lived. Perhaps we had become so accustomed to the magic of words on paper that we were afraid a face-to-face meeting might break the spell.

As we walked toward the gangplank, Beth threatened to start another war if I didn't write to her, and I vowed, for the sake of world peace, to be a faithful correspondent.

Finch, a small and somnolent village set among the rolling hills and the patchwork fields of the Cotswolds, a pastoral haven described in countless guidebooks as one of the prettiest regions in England

When his dream proved to be more than he could handle, he didn't become discouraged. He simply recognized his limitations and decided to live happily within them.

He refuses to let bitterness poison his heart. He chooses instead to believe in the healing power of love.

It's pointless to defeat evil by destroying life.