The Heart of Winter Quotes

“To live fully was to recognize and acknowledge the tiniest of beauties, those ever-present, immutable though often elusive truths, pure and simple as a raindrop on a daisy.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“He came to realize that it wasn’t always necessary to voice an opinion at all. Nobody had to be right or have the last word. Sometimes you just let a subject exist without trying to own it. You listened instead of talking, you considered instead of deflecting, you looked for common ground instead of points of contention. Sometimes playing well with others was as simple as getting out of your own way.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“Like all institutions, a marriage requires maintaining, and amending, for it is more than a binding commitment, it is a process, one that demands participation, a willingness to absorb, to accept, to reassess. Ruth didn’t need a marriage counselor to tell her any of that, she’d learned it in the trenches, and was still learning after twenty-six years. After the vows, and the bouquets, and the trip to Honolulu, marriage was mostly work.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“What made life truly precious could not be measured by achievement, or even service. To live fully was not an obligation or an act of faith, it wasn’t a state of being at all, but a capacity, a willingness to engage the smallest and most unexpected aspects of being alive, to remain curious and open to the unforeseen and hitherto unrecognizable. …To live fully was to recognize and acknowledge the tiniest of beauties, those ever present, immutable though often elusive truths, pure and simple as a raindrop on a daisy.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“Time did not march on methodically, minute by minute, day by day; it sprinted away from us in mad bursts, a thief in flight.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“For, setting aside all our differences, acknowledging the forces intent on tearing us apart, all we have to distinguish ourselves from nothingness, to buffer us from inevitable ruin, is each other.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“For, setting aside all our differences, acknowledging the forces intent on tearing us apart, all we have to distinguish ourselves from nothingness, to buffer us from inevitable ruin, is each other. Ruth squeezed Abe’s hand a little tighter. To hold his hand was to be felt, to be tethered to something solid amidst the vast confusion of the universe, even as her day drew near, and surely that day was not far removed.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“that singular source that by its very nature is opposed to congregation: the self, that flawed and miserable embodiment of the irrefutable loneliness that is being human, the condition that accounts for our desperate yearning toward any connection that might save us. “So, let us strive to understand and encourage one another, truly,” concluded Pastor Persun.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“That people think of us when we’re not around, that they go out of their way to do little things simply because they hope to please us, we sometimes take for granted. They may not always be matters of great inconvenience, these small acts of consideration, but they add up to a great deal.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“Poor Megs. Poor Abe, poor Ruth. If you were lucky enough to live a full life, they left you a towel to pee on in the end.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“I like the metaphysical conceit, and I like the vulnerability. I never recognized it before.” Whatever that meant. God, what a woman, though. Nearly nine decades on this earth, and still mentally limber, still willing to be open-minded, still game to reconsider ideas and opinions she once held as truths. How different from Abe, who clung to the ideas he’d always known, the ideas that had served him well as a young man, the principles that fit him like a trusty old pair of slippers.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“The nerve of him, his own child, belittling his every effort, correcting his every little oversight or omission, mediating his every move, as if Abe, or at least Ruth, had not taught him how to tie his own shoe and wipe his own bottom. Kyle treated Abe as if he were inept, a feeble old man, incapable of caring for himself, let alone anyone else.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“What made life truly precious could not be measured by achievement, or even service. To live fully was not an obligation or an act of faith, it wasn’t a state of being at all, but a capacity, a willingness to engage the smallest and most unexpected aspects of being alive, to remain curious and open to the unforeseen and hitherto unrecognizable.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter

“Life was a relentless war of attrition, to love was torturous, for love ravaged you and brought you to your knees; it broke your will, over and over, until death seemed like a merciful conclusion.”
― Jonathan Evison, The Heart of Winter