The Shell Seekers

by Rosamunde Pilcher

Self-reliance. That was the keyword, the one thing that could pull you through any crisis fate chose to hurl at you. To be yourself. Independent. Not witless. Still able to make my own decisions and plot the course of what remains of my life.

It was good. And nothing good is ever lost. It stays part of a person, becomes part of one’s character.

“Family rows are like car accidents. Every family thinks, ‘It couldn’t happen to us,’ but it can happen to everybody. The only way to avoid them is to drive with the greatest care and have much consideration for others.”

For that reason only, I should like to be a young man again. To be able to watch it all happening. Because, one day, they will come. As we came. Young men with bright visions and deep perceptions and tremendous talent. They will come, not to paint the bay and the sea and the boats and the moors, but the warmth of the sun and the colour of the wind. A whole new concept. Such stimulation. Such vitality. Marvellous.” He sighed. “And I shall be dead before it even begins. Do you wonder I feel regretful? To miss all that.” “There is only so much each man can do in his lifetime.”

“It’s not easy to live with one’s own inadequacies.”

“Absence is the wind that blows out the little candle, but fans the embers of a fire to a great blaze.

We don’t know how anything’s going to end. We just have to grasp each fleeting moment of joy as it whizzes by.

Cosmo always said that life wasn’t worth living unless you had something to look forward to.”

Isn’t misunderstanding the most horrible thing in the world?

Happiness is making the most of what you have, and riches is making the most of what you’ve got.

She may not have believed in God, but I’m pretty certain God believed in her.”