Isabel Robeson > Isabel's Quotes

“When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

“When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you
don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not
doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or
less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have
problems with our friends or family, we blame the other
person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will
grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive
effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason
and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no
reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you
understand, and you show that you understand, you can
love, and the situation will change”
― Thich Nhat Hanh

“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“But love has to be stronger than hate, or there is no future for us.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I'd like to be known.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“I know that grief, like regret, settles into our DNA and remains forever a part of us.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“Today’s young people want to know everything about everyone. They think talking about a problem will solve it. I come from a quieter generation. We understand the value of forgetting, the lure of reinvention.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“It is easy to disappear when no one is looking at you.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“I am a mother and mothers don’t have the luxury of falling apart in front of their children, even when they are afraid, even when their children are adults.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“Tante Isabelle says it’s better to be bold than meek. She says if you jump off a cliff at least you’ll fly before you fall.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“You are my sunlight in the dark and the ground beneath my feet.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“It is not biology that determines fatherhood. It is love.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“She wanted to bottle how safe she felt in this moment, so she could drink of it later when loneliness and fear left her parched.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“I belong to a generation that didn't expect to be protected from every danger. We knew the risks and took them anyway.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“A girl’s love for her father. Immutable. Unbearable but unbreakable.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“With all the risks they were taking, love was probably the most dangerous choice of all.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“She wanted to say "Don't leave me", but she couldn't do it, not again. She was so tired of begging people to love her.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“She realized that the landscape of a woman's soul could change as quickly as a world at war.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“Memories- even the best of them- faded.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“She was wiser than she’d been before. Now she knew how fragile life and love were. Maybe she would love him for only this day, or maybe for only the next week, or maybe until she was an old, old woman. Maybe he would be the love of her life … or her love for the duration of this war … or maybe he would only be her first love. All she really knew was that in this terrible, frightening world, she had stumbled into something unexpected. And she would not let it go again.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“She wouldn't have understood how dark a side love could have, how hiding it was the kindest thing you could do sometimes.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“It doesn’t hurt, it’s just my body. They can’t touch my soul.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“Why was it so easy for men in the world to do as they wanted and so difficult for women?”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“Beauty was just another way to discount her, to not see her.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“At my age, I should not be afraid of anything—certainly not my own past.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“They are not lost. Nor are they in a better place. They are gone. As I approach the end of my years, I know that grief, like regret, settles into our DNA and remains forever a part of us”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“A broken heart hurts as badly in wartime as in peace.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“If love is a disease, I suppose I'm infected.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“Asking yourself a question, that’s how resistance begins. And then ask that very question to someone else. —REMCO CAMPERT”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale