The Beach House Quotes

“A woman’s life has so many demands because she is the axis around which so many little planets spin.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“No knowledge is wasted,”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“You carry my love within you. A day will never dawn nor a sunset slip into the horizon when I will not think of you. I accept that the mind often dictates the heart. Yet I believe that the heart is the truer guide. So, if in the course of time you should want to come to me, do not hesitate. Know that I will be waiting for you. You will always have my heart—my love.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“I wouldn’t be worth my salt as a mother if I didn’t pass on the family recipes.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“The beach, the ocean, solitude—these are only a means to help you travel to the true peace and joy inside you. You must carry the magic in your heart, wherever you go.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“One day she would recall this very twilit evening and the sight of her children dancing on the shore and then... Yes, then she would wish she had stopped to hold their chubby hands and play tag along with them.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“But strength without flexibility makes one hard. Come September, when those fierce winds blow in from the sea, those hardwoods crack, splinter and fall. But the pliant palms are resilient and they bend with the wind. This is the secret of a Southern woman. Strength, resilience and beauty. We are never hard.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“Why didn’t you tell me? It’s all such a complicated mess.” “Most lives are if you live long enough, my darling.” “I’ve”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“After living at sea for twenty years or more, the female loggerhead returns to the beach of her birth to nest. She travels hundreds of miles through the Atlantic, her three-hundred-pound, eddish-brown carapace filled with hundreds of fertile eggs.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“Cancer is eating away my body, but anger will eat away your soul.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“People always seem to be in so much of a hurry. Rush, rush, rush. What are they rushing toward? Life isn't some kind of race. We all cross the same finish line, sooner or later. You'd hate to get the end in sight and suddenly wish you'd walked rather than run, wouldn't you? Maybe that's why they call it the human race. Well, we are all in it together. But the winner of this race gets no prize. so take your time.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“I’m just saying there’s no excuse for a man to hit a woman. None. Period. But verbal beatings can be worse. More insidious, in that the scars aren’t visible. Words can be killers.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“A woman’s life has so many demands because she is the axis around which so many little planets spin. I did it and, yes, there were countless delightful moments. But that part of my life died when Stratton did.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“She left home in a huff of tears and landed in Chicago. That soaring city on Lake Michigan suited her outspoken, rebellious ways more than the delicately mannered, cultured city of Charleston ever had.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“I accept that the mind often dictates the heart. Yet I believe that the heart is the truer guide. Was she”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“Don’t be angry any longer! Cancer is eating away my body, but anger will eat away your soul. Don’t let it destroy your chance for happiness.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“People always seem to be in so much of a hurry,” Lovie continued as she sat down breathlessly in the sand. “Rush, rush, rush. What are they rushing toward? Life isn’t some kind of race. We all cross the same finish line, sooner or later. You’d hate to get the end in sight and suddenly wish you’d walked rather than run, wouldn’t you?” “Maybe that’s why they call it the human race.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“Privacy is something that we maintain for the good of ourselves and others. Secrecy we keep to separate ourselves from others, even those we love.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“We can only do what we can live with.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“You don’t have to say thank you. I’m your mother. It’s my job. My pleasure.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“She had but one hope. “Lord,” she prayed, her voice raspy in her tight throat. “I’m not here to complain. You know me better than that after all this time. But the Bible says You never close a door without opening a window. So I’m praying for You to open the window. You know how things are between Cara and me. It will probably take a miracle to make peace. But You’re famous for those, so I’m hopeful. Please, Lord, that’s all I’m asking for. Not more time. I’d go willingly if I knew things were settled here before I left.” She smiled ruefully. “I’m going whether it’s willingly or not—I know that, too.” Her smile fell as she grimaced in pain. “Please, Lord, answer this one small prayer. Not just for me, but for Cara. Help me play with my child once more before I die. Bring my Cara home.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“Tears filled her eyes. Seeing the mother and her young children brought back images that were both joyous and heartbreaking. The years had flown by too swiftly, slipping away like sand through her fingers. She lifted her chin and wiped away the tear from her cheek. The vast blue ahead stretched out seemingly to infinity. This was no time for tears, she chided herself. She was old enough to know that life, like the sea, didn’t always play fair. Yet she’d always believed that if she played by the rules, if she persevered, one day she’d have time enough to... To do what? she asked herself, shaken.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“Stop what you’re doing and observe your children! Lovie wanted to say to the young mother. Quick, set aside your chores and turn your head. See how they laugh with such abandon? Only the very young can laugh like that. Look how they are giving you clues to who they are. Treasure these moments! Savor them. For they will disappear as quickly as the setting sun. And then, before you know it, you will be like me—an old woman, alone and willing to trade anything and everything for one soft evening such as this with her babies once again.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“I accept that the mind often dictates the heart. Yet I believe that the heart is the truer guide.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“A woman saw those turtle tears and instinctively knew that the turtle mother wept for her children. A mother knew of all the predators that awaited her young, of the swift currents that might lead them astray, of the dazzle of dangerous lights, of the complicated nets that could entangle them and of the many years of solitary swimming. She wept because she could not protect them from their fate.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“Lovie stood alone gazing toward the west. The day’s light extinguished and the night grew dark and silent save for the clicking of the swaying sea oats and the gentle lapping of waves along the shore. As ghosts of the past rose up to swirl in the hallucinatory colors of twilight, she sighed deeply, clasping her hands tight in front of her as one in prayer. She was nearly seventy years old. There was no time left for regret or misgivings, no time for dreams of what might have been. There were plans to be made. The beach house—and all the secrets it held—had to be placed in secure hands. Too much had been sacrificed for too many years to let the secrets slip out now. Too many reputations were at stake.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“, no time for dreams of what might have been. There were plans to be made. The beach house —and all the secrets it held— had to be placed in secure hands. Too much had been sacrificed for too many years to let the secrets slip out now. Too many reputations were at stake. She had but one hope. “Lord,” she prayed, her voice raspy in her tight throat. “I’m not here to complain. You know me better than that after all this time. But the Bible says You never close a door without opening a window. So I’m praying for You to open the window. You know how things are between Cara and me. It will probably take a miracle to make”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“worry about you, Caretta. You are a strong woman, true enough. But strength without flexibility makes one hard. Come September, when those fierce winds blow in from the sea, those hardwoods crack, splinter and fall. But the pliant palms are resilient and they bend with the wind. This is the secret of a Southern woman. Strength, resilience and beauty. We are never hard.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“love was never a sin. Not loving, now that was the very worst kind of sin,”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“It was chilling to wake up at forty years of age to find she had no friends, no interests and no investments in anything unconnected to her work.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House