The Shoemaker's Wife Quotes

“When you lose someone, they take a bigger place in your heart, not a smaller one. Every day it grows, because you don't stop loving them. You wish you could talk to them. You need their advice. But life doesn't always give us what we need, and it's difficult.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“Beware the things of this world that can mean everything or nothing.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“Moments are history. If you have enough of them, they become a story.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“Life, Enza decided, is not about what you get, but what is taken from you. It's in the things we lose that we discover what we most treasure.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“A practical girl never pines; she takes action.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“For a woman, love is the highest dream, and if a man promises to build a ladder tall enough to reach it, she believes him, hikes up her skirt, and follows him to the stars.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“If you look around to find meaning in everything that happens, you will end up disappointed. Sometimes there aren’t reasons behind the terrible things that go on. I ask myself, If I knew all the answers, would it help? I lie awake and wonder why I don’t have parents and wonder what will become of my brother and me. But when the morning comes, I realize that there’s nothing to be done about what has already happened. I can only get up and do my chores and push through the day and find the good in it.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“It's the secret to happiness, you know. Only take what you need.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“Giacomina had taught her daughter that you must dig constantly for meaning in the sorrow of this life, and that this sorrow must galvanize you, not define you.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“I've learned one important lesson in my life, and I'm going to share it with you. Don't worry about bad things that haven't happened yet. It will save you a lot of anxiety.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“Sometimes we get our hearts broken, only to have the right person come along to mend them.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“There are two kinds of people in this world. Those who want to know the facts, and those who want to make up a nice story to feel better. I wish I was the kind who made up stories.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“Women move through the world never knowing their power.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“Mama always said a good family has one heartbeat. No one knows you like the people you live with, and no one will take up your cause to the outside world quite like your blood relatives.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“He promised to love me. And for once in my life, I'm going to do the impractical, unwise, ill-advised thing. I'm going to make a decision based upon the feeling I have in my heart, and not what looks good on paper or makes anyone else happy. I'm going to do something for me, and I'll live with whatever Ciro brings into my life and be happy that I did.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“He loved his family and he loved beauty. For a true Italian, those are the only two things that matter, because in the end that's what sustains you. Your family gathers around you and shores you up while the beauty uplifts you.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“You must pray.'
'No, Sister.' Ciro smiled weakly. 'I'm not a good Catholic.'
'Well, Ciro, you're a good man, and that's more important.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“When I close my eyes, all I ever see is her face. There is no place or time without her. Where I am doesn't matter when we're apart. All I want is her.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“Ciro took Enza's face in his hands. "I have loved you all of my life. I was a boy who knew nothing, but when I met you, somehow I understood everything”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“A man needs his father more as life progresses, not less. It is not enough to learn how to use a lathe, milk a cow, repair a roof; there are greater holes to mend, deeper wells to fill, that only a father’s wisdom can sustain. A father teaches his son how to think a problem through, how to lead a household, how to love his wife. A father sets an example for his son, building his character from the soul outward.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“All you needed is what every girl needs, a good friend. Someone to talk to, to share with, to run things by...”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“A cassock does not make a man a priest, any more than a fine dress makes a woman truly beautiful - or good or generous or intelligent. Don't confuse the way someone looks with the way they are.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“A man who needs a mirror is looking for something.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“I’ve learned that it’s fine to have expectations, and dreams are wonderful, but once in a while, it would be good to have something come my way without having to fight for it.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“Enza thought no place on earth could be colder than the Italian Alps, but now she knew she just had never been to Minnesota.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“If a man walks in beauty, he will create, and when he creates, he prospers.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“For Ciro, Enza would sacrifice, fight to put food on the table, worry and fret over babies, and live life in full. She had only one life to share, and one heart to give the man who most deserved it. If she took Ciro on, she was in for a struggle compared to her life with Vito, but the love of all loves was worth it.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“He sank into the leather seat and held hope in his heart like a hundred stars.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“Ciro had made a bet in proposing to her, and on that same day, Enza made a bet of her own. She was putting all her money, effort and future into a partnership that she believed could not fail. She was going to pour all of herself into her marriage: love would sustain them, and trust would see them through. That was her belief, and that's how she was raised. When she spun the gold ring on her finger, it was as though it was made for her, but it meant even more that her husband had worn it since he was a boy. She was a part of his history now.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife

“The first stage of widowhood is paperwork.”
― Adriana Trigiani, The Shoemaker's Wife