Lydia Howe > Lydia's Quotes

“I don't know, Mom. Now that I'm about to graduate, I plan on being more spontaneous."
Mom opened her eyes and burst out laughing.
I said, "Got spontaneity on the calendar for next Tuesday.”
― Lara Avery, The Memory Book

“They'd said that whatever drug they'd slipped into his veins would make the journey comfortable. They'd said that he wouldn't even be aware of the trip, that he'd wake up in London and be on the mend. They'd said that rest was all he needed.
They'd lied.”
― Roseanna M. White, The Number of Love

“The secret twitched on my lips even as they heartily agreed to my offer and I slipped away to retrieve the cakes, but I could already taste victory on my tongue.”
― Connilyn Cossette, Like Flames in the Night

“A reminder that He had been Lord long before she entered the world, and He would be Lord long after. That history would always march on, humanity living and dying, loving and losing, praising and cursing, but that He was unchanging.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“The world may still look dark, but if photography had taught her anything, it was that there was always more light to be found. Sometimes you just needed to change your lens. And sometimes you need a flash. Neither ever changed what was really there... but it showed it in a new way.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“Look for the beauty in a thousand silent moments.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“Her eyes . . . they were much like her father’s. They carried within them a knowledge of the storms always rumbling and flashing on the horizon. An understanding of these times, the good and the bad. A . . . a seeing. He didn’t know what else to call it. Not a gathering of the facts, of the patterns that he sought. It was something different. Something he couldn’t name. But something that made him think she understood things he didn’t”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“But God's world--that was an endless feast of the truest beauty.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“Our purpose ought to be in giving it back to Him moment by moment.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“We can trust that His promises are always true, because they have always been true.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“They wouldn't, if they realized that socialist "freedom" involved killing anyone who held a different view. That was no freedom. That was the worst form of tyranny - the kind that lied about what it was.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“"His promises have not changed just because my circumstances have. He is still the giver of all. The lover of our souls. No matter how bad our situation, He is still good. All we have to do is look for Him."”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“We must be still - not our hands and feet, but our minds. And know that He is God. That He has not changed. That the same Lord who loved us when all is well loves us still when all is lost. His promises are as true today as they were yesterday. He has been enough to see people through the worst since the dawn of time. We must trust that His love is enough to see us through now.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“[God] is still God. And when He leads us through the valley of shadows, we can know it is so that we are made into sons and daughters of light, capable of redeeming these evil days for Him.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“The truth, when viewed from the wrong angle, didn't necessarily set one free.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“She had a feeling he was like a matryoshka doll too--a placid exterior that hid layers of secrets and mysteries. And she couldn't help but wonder what lay beneath this carefully crafted shell.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“Something about him struck her as photographic, as if he were already a still life captured on film. What would he look like when actually put to paper? Would the camera see the same thing her eyes did, or would it not translate into a photograph, where everything was caught in a moment devoid of motion? No. She'd learned to capture motion - or its story, anyway - with her camera. She would just have to see if she could capture its opposite too. A challenge she'd never taken up before, but one she was determined to meet.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder: he burneth the chariot in the fire. Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“Perhaps she would see if Ara would like to have tea or something. They rarely had the chance to socialize outside of Charing Cross (hospital).”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“But Batya used to say that the difference between a wise man and a fool was not that the wise man was right and the fool was wrong - but that the fool always assumed himself right, and the wise man would wonder if he could be wrong. We cannot learn from our mistakes and grow wiser if we never admit to the times we've chosen the wrong path.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“Black and white could lie. She knew that better than anyone. It was no great thing at all to take what was there, cut it out, and put it somewhere else instead, where it meant something entirely different.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“The world may still look dark, but if photography had taught her anything, it was that there was always more light to be found. Sometimes you just needed to change your lens. And sometimes you needed a flash. Neither ever changed what was really there...but it showed it in a new way. She'd always thought of that as art. But it wasn't. That was life. And art was just the imitator.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“Poison gas destroys only a man's body. But Propaganda, Lily ... it tells them a story, invites them to believe in something it cannot back up. It lures our men into supposedly glorious battle and then crushes their spirits - their very faith in God and country - when it instead delivers an inglorious hell on earth.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“Memories. They are like matryoshka dolls, yes?"
[Lily] looked at Mr. Martin again, brows knit. "What kind of dolls?"
He cupped his hands, then brought them closer together. "They...nest. Nesting dolls? You know them by this name, perhaps?"
"Oh! Yes, of course. ...Memories /are/ like that, to be sure. As soon as you peek at one, another reveals itself, and then another.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“I do know that when we are told to leave vengeance to the Lord, it is not so that we can glory in it when it comes. . . .
God's wrath is a mighty and terrible thing. we should not be wishing it on others--we should be trying to save them from it.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty

“We mustn't let such things come between us anymore. Not anger, not secrets, not fear. They will not rob us of the life God has given us. . . .
This life isn't ours to begin with. We don't own it. . . . It is always His--His gift to us. Our purpose ought to be in giving it back to Him moment by moment. In knowing that losing this life isn't defeat. It's victory.”
― Roseanna M. White, A Portrait of Loyalty