The Beekeeper's Promise Quotes

“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“Being mindful. Rather than having a mind that’s full,”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“You smell of honey and sunshine. Even after all that. The darkness of this world can't dim the light that shines from you, Eliane.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“Go to your fields and your gardens, and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower, But it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee. For to the bee a flower is a fountain of life, And to the flower a bee is a messenger of love.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“In the midst of winter, I found that there was within me an invincible summer. Retour à Tipasa, Albert Camus (1952)”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“Do you remember what I said last weekend? That they’ve taken our voices, as well as our country.’ She raised her eyes to his. ‘They can’t silence us forever, though. The day will come, eventually, when the truth can be told.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“I know how living in a state of fear creates an inertia. It saps your strength and drains your energy, until you become trapped like a fly in a spider’s web. The more you struggle, at first, the tighter the silken threads are woven around you, until finally escape becomes impossible.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“this is not just a marriage; it’s an affirmation of life and hope, of courage and quiet strength, of the defiant joy that exists alongside the sadness and the fear.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“The cross is just as much a part of the oak as its branches and its roots, just as my scars are now a part of me, for ever more. And yet, there is resilience. The body finds a way to close the wounds, to live with the scars. To heal. And, yes, even to grow.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“her fingertips brushed his hand for a fleeting moment, a touch as gentle as the brush of a butterfly's wing”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“Then one by one they raised their faces to the sky. 'Like a field of sunflowers'.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“...It's an affirmation of life and hope, of courage and quiet strength, of the defiant joy that exists alongside the sadness and the fear.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“Stand tall, Eliane... Don't let them destroy you, too. Promise yourself. We will survive this. We won't let them beat us. Courage, ma fille, courage.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“karma;”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“Outside!’ shouts someone else. ‘After all, “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass – it’s about dancing in the rain!”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“And so the last breath he took was perfumed with beeswax, and the breeze that blows across the river. And, even as it slowed, faltered, and then stopped, his heart was filled with love.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“trapped like a fly in a spider’s web. The more you struggle, at first, the tighter the silken threads are woven around you, until finally escape becomes impossible.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass – it’s about dancing in the rain!”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“I know as well as anyone that sometimes you have to look beneath the surface to discover the secret history of places. And of people.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“know as well as anyone that sometimes you have to look beneath the surface to discover the secret history of places. And of people.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“Under the sustained stresses of the war, the bonds of the community were beginning to fracture.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“Eliane sighed and thought, Just like people. It was easier to be neighbourly when food was plentiful and you were plump and contented; these days it was a case of merely surviving and that seemed to bring out the worst, whether you were a chicken or a human being. By and large, the villagers of Coulliac had stuck together. But,”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“But Eliane, the war can’t last forever. So what happens afterwards? When it’s over, every one of us will have to live with the things we have done.’ ‘Yes, Mathieu,’ she replied. ‘We’ll have to live with the things we’ve done. And every one of us will have to live with the things we haven’t done, as well.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“Whether we win or lose this war, we will have to live with the consequences of our decisions. I’ve asked myself: “What will be on your conscience when all this is over? What will your decision be when you get to that crossing point?” Well, I’m at that crossing point now. And I’ve made my decision.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“Will I be up to the work? What if I let them down? What if I ruin someone’s special day because I make some terrible mistake?”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“Au milieu de l’hiver, j’apprenais enfin qu’il y avait en moi un été invincible.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“In the midst of winter, I found that there was within me an invincible summer.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“to have known love is the most important thing there is.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“All of these inspirations, along with a love for the place, the people and their history, have found their way into the books she’s written, which have been translated into German, Norwegian, Czech, Turkish and Slovenian. Fiona now lives in Scotland, but”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise

“What a little mouse I was, naïve enough to be flattered, to mistake the attention he bestowed on me for love. I wanted it to be, and so I made myself believe that it was something it wasn’t.”
― Fiona Valpy, The Beekeeper's Promise