Dad, Please accept this money to fix the broken window. I’m sure it’s already fixed, considering Lydia’s house pride and her phobia about unconditioned air, but Dear Al, I can’t begin to explain my actions at Lydia’s – I mean yours and Lydia’s house. When I get to Charleston, I never imagined that you would have Dear Dad and Lydia, I apologize to both of you for my irrational behavior. I know it’s all my fault, but if you would have listened to ONE THING I had to say, I might not have Dear Dad’s new family, I hope you’ll all be very happy being blond together. May people speak only in inside voices for the rest of your lives. P.S. Lydia, you wedding dress makes your arms look fat.
Ann Brashares
Related People are not an interruption of our business. People are our business. A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. It is hard to look up to a leader who keeps his ear to the ground. The most wasted day of all is that in which we have not laughed. The more intelligent a man is, the more originality he discovers in men. Ordinary people see no diff... The intelligence is proved not by ease of learning, but by understanding what we learn. Communication is something so simple and difficult that we can never put it in simple words. Like threads of silver seen through crystal beads Let love through good deeds show. How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it. In everyone's heart stirs a great homesickness. That is the supreme value of history. The study of it is the best guarantee against repeating it. Our wisdom comes usually from our experience, and our experience comes largely from our experience. One thing about the school of experience is that it will repeat the lesson if you flunk the first ti... To reprove small faults within due vehemence, is as absurd as if a man should take a great hammer to... Faith is like electricity. You can't see it, but you can see the light. Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it by the handle of anxiety, or by the handle of... Some families can trace their ancestors back three hundred years, but can't tell you where their chi... A recent survey was said to prove that the people we Americans most admire are our politicians and d... If a man defrauds you one time, he is a rascal; if he does it twice, you are a fool. Flattery looks like friendship, just like a wolf looks like a dog. Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. Courage is always greatest when blended with meekness; intellectual ability is most admired when it ... Freedom also includes the right to mismanage your own affairs. Let your friends be the friends of your deliberate choice. The man who has strong opinions and always says what he thinks is courageous - and friendless. Friendship is love with understanding. So few people think. When we find one who really does, we call him a genius Your life can't go according to plan if you have no plan. Practicing the Golden Rule is not a sacrifice; it is an investment. Conversation is an exercise of the mind; gossip is merely an exercise of the tongue. An expert gossiper knows how much to leave out of a conversation To live so that you would not be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip, is to have li... Gossip is sometimes referred to as halitosis of the mind If you would attain greatness, think no little thoughts. We are born brave, trusting and greedy, and most of us remain greedy. People are changed, not by coercion or intimidation, but by example. Children are natural mimics; they act like their parents in spite of every effort to teach them good... The guilty catch themselves. Good habits are formed; bad habits we fall into. If happiness could be brought, few of us could pay the price. Happiness will never come to those who fail to appreciate what they already have. Happiness is in the heart, not in the circumstances. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. Hatred is a boomerang which is sure to hit you harder than the one at whom you throw it. Hate pollutes the mind. If we miraculously became the people we hate, how lovable we would find ourselves. To feel "fit as a fiddle" you must tone down your middle. Our health always seems much more valuable after we lose it. A patient going to a doctor for his first visit was asked, "And whom did you consult before coming t... "Oh," replied his patient, with no malice aforethought, "he told me to come and see you." It is impossible to make wisdom hereditary. Honesty is a question of right or wrong, not a matter of policy. It is a pleasure to give advice, humiliating to need it, normal to ignore it. It is almost impossible to smile on the outside without feeling better on the inside. Too many people confine their exercise to jumping to conclusions, running up bills, stretching the t... Imagination was given man to compensate for what he is not, and a sense of humor to console him for ... Humor - the perfect relationship of the parts to the whole. Our five senses are incomplete without the sixth - a sense of humor. "What made the deepest impression upon you?" inquired a friend one day of Lincoln, "when you stood i... It isn't easy for an idea to squeeze itself into a head filled with prejudice. Too many people run out of ideas long before they run out of words. Imagination is the pontoon bridge making way for the timid feet of reason. Practical observation commonly consists of collecting a few facts and loading them with guesses. Friendship is a living thing that lasts only as long as it is nourished with kindness, empathy and u... Having supplied them with names, omnipotence, justice, knowledge, Providence, - what are they? A good laugh is sunshine in a house. When you laugh, be sure to laugh at what people do and not at what people are. One look around us ought to show that all our arbitrary measures and bounds have been clamped on us ... No punishment of the unrighteous has ever been too severe in the eyes of the righteous. Why keep on enacting laws when we already have more than we can break. The best leader is the one who has the sense to surround himself with outstanding people and self-re... Advice is the only commodity on the market where the supply always exceeds the demand. Successful men follow the same advice they prescribe for others. You can judge your age by the amount of pain you feel when you come in contact with a new idea Old age may seem a long way off. But on the day it doesn't, it will be too late to do anything about... Age withers only the outside. Where ambition ends happiness begins. The best answer to answer to anger is silence. The size of a man is measured by the size of the thing that makes him angry. A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about. People who know the least always argue the most. If you look for the positive things in life; you will find them. What we are doing at the moment is more that just one thing added to the rest; it is a memoir. Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes The human mind must believe in something, so why not let it believe what it does believe. He that boasts of his own knowledge proclaims his ignorance It is better to live richly than to die rich. On his examination paper a boy wrote, "A natural death is where you die by yourself without a doctor... Many things are worse than defeat,and compromise with evil is one of them. Desire for security keeps littleness little and threatens the great with smallness. We cannot be too earnest, too persistent, too determined, about living superior to the herd-instinct... A college education never hurt anybody who was willing to learn after he got it. Shortchange your education now and you may be short of change the rest of your life. Mistakes are a great educator when one is honest enough to admit them and willing to learn from them Catch your people doing something right and let them know you appreciate it. Create the kind of climate in your organization where personal growth is expected, recognized and re... Enthusiasm is very good lubrication for the mind. Enthusiasm is that kindling spark which marks the difference between the leaders in every activity a... There are many roads to hate, but envy is the shortest of them all. The only person worth envying is he person who doesn't envy.
More Ann Brashares
Maybe, sometimes, it's easier to be mad at the people you trust because you know they'll always love... ANN BRASHARES Different people were good at different things, Lena mused. Lena was good at writing thank-you notes... ANN BRASHARES You thought you had the choice to stay still or move forward, but your didn't. As long as your heart... ANN BRASHARES The ocean was the best place, of course. That was what she loved most. It was a feeling of freedom l... ANN BRASHARES The distinction has blurred between young adult and adult books. Some of the teen books have become ... ANN BRASHARES Lena wished that love were something you could flip on and off. You could turn it on when you felt g... ANN BRASHARES She existed in her friends; there she was. All the parts of herself she'd forgotten. She knew hersel... ANN BRASHARES It's so much easier to have no expectations than to have big ones. ANN BRASHARES Not even you can reach me here, Carmen thought. ANN BRASHARES They were absolutely lovely, and in their presence, so was she. ANN BRASHARES Forget Jack, I'm in love with the cold, dirt floor. ANN BRASHARES Riley was quiet for a minute. She gathered her blanket all around her. "Paul always loved you, Alice... ANN BRASHARES I love you, I'll never stop. ANN BRASHARES Maybe the truth is, there's a little bit of loser in all of us. Being happy isn't having everything ... ANN BRASHARES Parents were the only ones obligated to love you; from the rest of the world you had to earn it. ANN BRASHARES When you feel someone else's pain and joy as powerfully as if it were your own, then you know you re... ANN BRASHARES I did the searching and remembering, she did the disappearing and the forgetting. ANN BRASHARES Maybe you think you’ll be entitled to more happiness later by forgoing all of it now, but it doesn... ANN BRASHARES I agree that a love of reading is a great gift for a parent to pass on to his or her child. ANN BRASHARES Her body was a prison, her mind was a prison. Her memories were a prison. The people she loved. She ... ANN BRASHARES I don't have the life of a famous person. But I do feel like I've been able to connect with ... ANN BRASHARES Lena realized that a fundamental layer of their happiness depended on the four of them being close t... ANN BRASHARES She hadn't chosen the brave life. She'd chosen the small, fearful one. ANN BRASHARES He was the strangest of strangers in that he was also her oldest friend. ANN BRASHARES How terrible would it be to just wait there pathetically alone for him never to show up?" Eudox... ANN BRASHARES In a flash of wonderment she saw firm, continuous ground under her feet, stretching from back then t... ANN BRASHARES You could feel things or you could find a way to shut down. But once you were feeling things, you co... ANN BRASHARES She was astonished, and at the same time she knew. There were many things in life like that. You cou... ANN BRASHARES She wondered again about her inclination to wish for things that made her so deeply unhappy. ANN BRASHARES It was her last breakfast with Bapi, her last morning in Greece. In her frenetic bliss that kept her... ANN BRASHARES She went around with a broken heart, and she wasn't sure who'd broken it. She thought it was herself... ANN BRASHARES When I turned fifteen, I remember my father gave me a credit card which I was allowed to use for two... ANN BRASHARES Sometimes you couldn’t face the sadness of being forgotten until you felt the comfort of being rem... ANN BRASHARES I do believe that characters in novels belong to their writers and their readers pretty equally. I'v... ANN BRASHARES Sex could be a blissful communion,. But it could also be a weapon, and its absence, sometimes, was r... ANN BRASHARES Barbara appraised her with critical eyes. ‘Oh my. Well, this is going to need some work.’ She we... ANN BRASHARES Please don't judge me too much until you are older and know more things. (Spoken from mother to daug... ANN BRASHARES I picture you four girls back when you were small. I hardly knew where you ended and the other ones ... ANN BRASHARES Her vision of the world under the water represented a beautiful stillness, a version of heaven. It w... ANN BRASHARES She'd cried over a broken heart before. She knew what that felt like, and it didn't feel like this. ... ANN BRASHARES She didn't open the envelope until she'd gotten to the bus station and needed to pay for her ticket.... ANN BRASHARES Grief was like a newborn, and the first three months were hard as hell, but by six months you'd reco... ANN BRASHARES I allowed myself to suffer how jarringly destructive the present feels and how fragile the past. ANN BRASHARES Maybe happiness didn't have to be about the big, sweeping circumstances, about having everything in ... ANN BRASHARES Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not. ANN BRASHARES When you remembered to forget, you were remembering. It was when you forgot to forget that you forgo... ANN BRASHARES There are two kinds of people in this world. The kind who divide the world into two kinds of people ... ANN BRASHARES She perched on her windowsill, gazing at the lurid sun soaking into the Caldera, trying to appreciat... ANN BRASHARES What you leave behind is the people you loved. You leave yourself in them. ANN BRASHARES She liked the life she had. She loved habits. She craved a day with nothing in it, a long, quiet str... ANN BRASHARES But I know this. We're ready to move forward again in our way. Together or apart, no matter how far ... ANN BRASHARES Bridget cried for the leavers and the left. For the people, like herself, grimly forsaking what prec... ANN BRASHARES I killed her once and died for her many times and I still have nothing to show for it. I always sear... ANN BRASHARES She spilled rice on my knee, and she smiled. I wanted her to spill a thousand things on me, lava, ac... ANN BRASHARES Honesty was a tough customer... Once you started allowing yourself some honesty, it couldn't easily ... ANN BRASHARES He didn't seem to realize that three excuses was as good as no excuse. ANN BRASHARES I'm afraid of time... I mean, I'm afraid of not having enough time. Not enough time to understand pe... ANN BRASHARES Those were the people who made her something, and without them she was different. She'd held on to t... ANN BRASHARES It was like a dream you might have after death in which lost people came back to life, your friends ... ANN BRASHARES His distress and pleasure mixed and married, giving birth to several anxious children. ANN BRASHARES Bridget cried for the leavers and the left. For the people, like herself, grimly forsaking what few ... ANN BRASHARES I told him that he better be good to you. When you came along, I said I'd share you, but I told him ... ANN BRASHARES Show me a girl with her feet planted firmly on the ground and I'll show you a girl who can't put her... ANN BRASHARES You broke up with him," a combination Effie-Carmen voice in her head reminded her. "But t... ANN BRASHARES I tell myself your spirits were down the day you wrote. You're fine and we're fine. I hope it's true... ANN BRASHARES She was bad at love. She loved too hard. ANN BRASHARES sometimes you need to make a mess. ANN BRASHARES She wasn't as destructive as Bee. She had never been as dramatic. Rather, she'd slipped carefully, s... ANN BRASHARES Treasure in such large amounts stopped feeling precious ANN BRASHARES The phone was her worst enemy and her best friend but she never knew which until she answered it. ANN BRASHARES You Could Only See As Far As Your Headlights, But You Can Make Your Whole Trip That Way :) ANN BRASHARES I know you are always finding ways to love me in spite of how horrible I am, I hope I haven't run ou... ANN BRASHARES Tibby sat on the outside of a group of kids in the film program. There was a lot of dark clothing an... ANN BRASHARES Everything I ever said to you was true and is true. ANN BRASHARES But there were times when you felt miserable and you wanted to feel better, and other times when you... ANN BRASHARES The bottom had arrived. She crashed against it, but it brought no sense of closure or understanding.... ANN BRASHARES Women always seemed to bring the size they wished they were to the fitting room, rather than the siz... ANN BRASHARES But then she hadn’t just learned to love this summer – she had also learned how to need. ANN BRASHARES The dreams weren’t as pleasing when they had no chance of coming true ANN BRASHARES Carmen sat up when she heard a familiar trill from her computer. It was an instant message from Bee.... ANN BRASHARES Sometimes it is a relief to be invisible ANN BRASHARES Some things have to be believed to be seen. -Ralph Hodgson ANN BRASHARES Life isn't just fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all. -William Goldman ANN BRASHARES Carmen didn't like change, and she certainly didn't like endings. ANN BRASHARES Carmen was bad at loving. She loved too hard. ANN BRASHARES I mean putting yourself out there in the way of overwhelming happiness and knowing you're also putti... ANN BRASHARES The word friends doesn't seem to stretch big enough to describe how we feel about each other. We for... ANN BRASHARES She got tired of herself. She got tired of not being able to say what she wanted or do what she want... ANN BRASHARES Lena knew she had spent too much of her life in a state of passive dread, just waiting for something... ANN BRASHARES She used to cry roughly three times a year. Now she seemed to cry three times before breakfast. Coul... ANN BRASHARES I was supposed to write a romantic comedy, but my characters broke up. ANN BRASHARES You don't have time, Len. That is the most bitter and the most beautiful piece of advice I can offer... ANN BRASHARES People sometimes talk about the power of first impressions, and believe me, there is truth to it. ANN BRASHARES Lena always described how she dreaded and mourned things before they even happened. Carmen was begin... ANN BRASHARES She loved her mother and depended on her mother, and yet every single word her mother said annoyed h... ANN BRASHARES Their friendship was only one aspect of their lives but it seemed to give meaning to all the others. ANN BRASHARES You couldn't erase the past. You couldn't even change it. But sometimes life offered you the opportu... ANN BRASHARES A part of her wanted to tell him she still loved him, and that even though this love was hopeless an... ANN BRASHARES Tibby, who was not fond of change, had once told Bridget that the present, no matter what it brought... ANN BRASHARES Finalement, ce n'est peut-être pas la corruption ni l'avidité qui rend lâche. Peut-être n'est-ce... ANN BRASHARES Lena, listen to me, okay? We don't have much more time here. You are in love. I've never seen anythi... ANN BRASHARES She kept walking. The very small, brave part of her brain knew that this would be her one chance. If... ANN BRASHARES she looked up at the stars and gave Tibby thanks. She didn't have to throw her thoughts far to know ... ANN BRASHARES You know what the secret is? It's so simple. We love one another. We're nice to one another. Do you ... ANN BRASHARES Carmen: “I want you to leave me alone, but not ignore me. I want you to miss me when I go away to ... ANN BRASHARES When she made her way to the big picture window that framed the dining room table she froze. She sto... ANN BRASHARES Why was it that her temper and her thinking never happened at the same time? Her temper behaved like... ANN BRASHARES Bridget's anger evaporated and the sadness came back. The anger was easier. She owned and controlled... ANN BRASHARES You'll turn out ordinary if you're not careful. ANN BRASHARES I'm writing this down, because it is going to be hard for me to say it. Because this is probably our... ANN BRASHARES Let me love you, but don't love me back. Do love me and let me hate you for a while. Let me feel lik... ANN BRASHARES Sometimes you need to make a mess. -Loretta, the Rollinses' hosekeeper ANN BRASHARES Maybe they would look at each other and feel some odd yearning, but neither of them would know why. ... ANN BRASHARES Why do we fight the things we fight when giving into them isn't so bad at all? ANN BRASHARES Even Obama's staunchest supporters are starting to leave him. Last week Michelle Obama demanded ... ANN COULTER Know when to tune out, if you listen to too much advice you may wind up making other peoples mistake... ANN LANDERS Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful. ANN LANDERS Class never tries to build itself up by tearing others down. Class is already up and need not strive... ANN LANDERS Class is considerate of others. It knows that good manners is nothing more than a series of petty sa... ANN LANDERS People who drink to drown their sorrow should be told that sorrow knows how to swim. ANN LANDERS The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven't thought of yet. ANN LANDERS One out of four people in this country is mentally unbalanced. Think of your three closes friends; i... ANN LANDERS Class can 'walk with kings and keep its virtue and talk with crowds and keep the common touch.... ANN LANDERS People who care about each other enjoy doing things for one another. They don't consider it serv... ANN LANDERS If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things that are missing. If you don... ANN LANDERS I don't believe that you have to be a cow to know what milk is. ANN LANDERS The Lord gave us two ends - one to sit on and the other to think with. Success depends on which one ... ANN LANDERS All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good... ANN LANDERS Too many people today know the price of everything and the value of nothing. ANN LANDERS I don't think most people are all heroic or all villainous, so I find ambiguity of motivations t... ANN NOCENTI You need that guy like a giraffe needs strep throat. ANN LANDERS I'm a little bit more unusual so I consider myself as the black sheep. ANN WILSON We all have burdens and we need to learn to carry each other's burdens, lighten each other's... ANN ROMNEY You can't fool yourself anymore that your art is your art. When you're not getting paid for ... ANN POWERS If Donald Trump's candidacy has proven anything, it's that the media has no idea what Americ... ANN COULTER If I were a 40-year-old woman, 40-to-50, I'd want to be getting my mammograms. They catch cancer... ANN ROMNEY Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them. ANN LANDERS The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good. ANN LANDERS I often feel that I have a split personality. I love more than anything to be in my study writing, b... ANN HOOD All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good... ANN LANDERS There can be life after breast cancer. The prerequisite is early detection. ANN JILLIAN If love means that one person absorbs the other, then no real relationship exists any more. Love eva... ANN OAKLEY Where there's smoke around a conservative, there are journalists furiously rubbing two sticks togeth... ANN COULTER We need not fear life, because God is the Ruler of all and we need not fear death, because He shares... ANN LANDERS After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high... ANN RICHARDS Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are ... ANN LANDERS Keep in mind that the true measure of an individual is how he treats a person who can do him absolut... ANN LANDERS ... be radical about grace and relentless about truth and resolute about holiness... ANN VOSKAMP Writing is a job, a talent, but it's also the place to go in your head. It is the imaginary friend y... ANN PATCHETT I want to see beauty. In the ugly, in the sink, in the suffering, in the daily, in all the days befo... ANN VOSKAMP I believe in recovery, and as a role model I have the responsibility to let young people know that y... ANN RICHARDS It takes a fearless, unflinching love and deep humility to accept the universe as it is. The most ef... ANN DRUYAN Simplicity is ultimately a matter of focus. ANN VOSKAMP Mother Mary of Anabolic Grace, we got Teras incoming?” He levels angry blue eyes on me. “You’r... ANN AGUIRRE There are always women who will take men on their own terms. If I were a man I wouldn't bother to ch... ANN OAKLEY Men are the enemies of women. Promising sublime intimacy, unequalled passion, amazing security and g... ANN OAKLEY Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them. ANN LANDERS I have always had the feeling I could do anything and my dad told me I could. I was in college befor... ANN RICHARDS If I were asked to give what I consider the single most useful bit of advice for all humanity, it wo... ANN LANDERS Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful. ANN LANDERS Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman's natural fitness for the career of ... ANN OAKLEY Trouble is the common denominator of living. It is the great equalizer. ANN LANDERS No one has the right to destroy another person's belief by demanding empirical evidence. ANN LANDERS Class is an aura of confidence that is being sure without being cocky. Class has nothing to do with ... ANN LANDERS What the vast majority of American children needs is to stop being pampered, stop being indulged, st... ANN LANDERS The real question is why are millions of people so unhappy, so bored, so unfulfilled, that they are ... ANN LANDERS Families are nothing other than the idolatry of duty. ANN OAKLEY One out of four people in this country is mentally imbalanced. Think of your three closest friends. ... ANN LANDERS At every party there are two kinds of people -- those who want to go home and those who don't. The t... ANN LANDERS The primary function of myth is to validate an existing social order. Myth enshrines conservative so... ANN OAKLEY Housework is work directly opposed to the possibility of human self-actualization. ANN OAKLEY Bragging is not an attractive trait, but let's be honest. A man who catches a big fish doesn't go ho... ANN LANDERS Let us keep Christmas beautiful Without a thought of greed, That it might live forevermore To fill o... ANN SCHULTZ It seems to me that the problem with diaries, and the reason that most of them are so boring, is tha... ANN BEATTIE If you marry a man who cheats on his wife, you'll be married to a man who cheats on his wife. ANN LANDERS Bragging is not an attractive trait, but let's be honest. A man who catches a big fish doesn't go h... ANN LANDERS Class is an aura of confidence that is being sure without being cocky. Class has nothing to do with ... ANN LANDERS Television has proved that people will look at anything rather than each other. ANN LANDERS The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven't thought of yet. ANN LANDERS When the mind has once begun to yield to the weakness of superstition, trifles impress it with the f... ANN RADCLIFFE When one can hear people moving, one does not so much mind, about one's fears. ANN RADCLIFFE It is dismal coming home, when there is nobody to welcome one! ANN RADCLIFFE There is some magic in wealth, which can thus make persons pay their court to it, when it does not e... ANN RADCLIFFE Poverty cannot deprive us of many consolations. It cannot rob us of the affection we have for each o... ANN RADCLIFFE All married couples should learn the art of battle as they should learn the art of making love. Good... ANN LANDERS What has a man's face to do with his character? Can a man of good character help having a disagreeab... ANN RADCLIFFE There is some comfort in dying surrounded by one's children. ANN RADCLIFFE What are riches - grandeur - health itself, to the luxury of a pure conscience, the health of the so... ANN RADCLIFFE Though the vicious can sometimes pour affliction upon the good, their power is transient and their p... ANN RADCLIFFE The refreshing pleasure from the first view of nature, after the pain of illness, and the confinemen... ANN RADCLIFFE Employment is the surest antidote to sorrow. ANN RADCLIFFE I tasted too what was called the sweet of revenge - but it was transient, it expired even with the o... ANN RADCLIFFE Through the eight books in 'The Treasure Chest' series, readers will meet twins Maisie and F... ANN HOOD In my adult life, I had spent a lot of time angry at God, mostly over the sudden deaths in my family... ANN HOOD Admittedly, no Republican can get elected statewide in California anymore, but nor can what we think... ANN COULTER Know yourself. Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonder... ANN LANDERS I think in the immediate days after 9/11, the administration acted very, very well. I liked the deci... ANN RICHARDS I'm accusing Republicans of thinking the Jews have so much power. ANN COULTER If a university official's letter accusing a speaker of having a proclivity to commit speech cri... ANN COULTER We were a family that made our Halloween costumes. Or, more accurately, my mother made them. She too... ANN HOOD