The Things We Cannot Say Quotes

“It costs our ancestors too damned much for us to have this life - the best thing we can do to honor them is to live it to its fullest.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“Life has a way of shattering our expectations, of leaving our hopes in pieces without explanation. But when there's love in a family, the fragments left behind from our shattered dreams can always be pulled together again, even if the end result is a mosaic.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“Life doesn't work that way, Alina. Hatred spreads - it doesn't burn out with time. Someone needs to stand up and stop it.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“Time has a way of deluding how we remember things, but there are some memories too pure for even the ravages of the years.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“I can't wait to tell him how much of a revelation it has been to do something like this - standing on a mountaintop for no reason other than the sake of the experience. This moment is an investment in myself. I'm giving myself permission to make a memory that benefits no one but me. I love being a mother, and I love being a wife. I even love being a daughter and a granddaughter. But as I stand here on the mountaintop, I'm not any of those things. I am simply Alice, and for one breathtaking moment, I'm completely present.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“Life has a way of reminding you that you are at the mercy of chance, and that even well-thought-out plans can turn to chaos in an instant.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“War breaks us down to nothing more than our most selfish will to survive—but when we rise above that instinct, miracles can still happen.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“We didn’t realize that time has a way of racing past you—that the long hard days sometimes make for very short years.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“What happens when stories like theirs are lost? What happens when there’s no one left to pass your experience on to, or you just can’t bring yourself to share it?”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“just because our suffering isn’t the worst, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t count.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“I knew with absolute certainty that small problems in a country can become immense tragedies when left unchecked. It started small in Germany. It even started small in Poland, long before the occupation. It started with a small group of people harassing and vandalizing and desecrating, and it ended with trainloads of my countrymen shipped to furnaces and dumped into a river. I”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“I knew with absolute certainty that small problems in a country can become immense tragedies when left unchecked. It started small in Germany. It even started small in Poland, long before the occupation. It started with a small group of people harassing and vandalizing and desecrating, and it ended with trainloads of my countrymen shipped to furnaces and dumped into a river.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“I’m doing the best I can, it’s usually not good enough and that’s just the way it is.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“Maybe those bits and pieces from our past are important in case they one day need to act as a map to guide her back to the memories she cherishes.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“Life doesn’t work that way, Alina. Hatred spreads—it doesn’t burn out with time. Someone needs to stand up and stop it. You watch, sister—when they’re done with the Jews, it will be our turn again. Besides, even if we could ride out the war with our heads down, and we sat back while the Nazis worked all of our Jewish friends to death, what kind of Poland could be rebuilt once they were gone? Those people are as important to this country as we are. We’re better off dying with honor than sitting back to watch our countrymen suffer,” he said.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“We are meant to be together,” he whispered, trailing his finger down the side of my face. We were made for each other, and everything else in the world will just have to figure itself out because we are going to be together. I love you.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“Not for the first time, I wish just once when I asked my grandmother about the war, instead of her telling me “that was a terrible time, I don’t want to talk about it,” she’d been able to say something more. Anything more. Maybe if she could have shared some of her story, I could have learned from it, I could have taught my children from it—we could have built a better world from the hard lessons she surely learned.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“Home is not the country we stand in—it’s us. Home is the future we have been planning and dreaming of. We can build it anywhere.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“Hatred spreads—it doesn’t burn out with time. Someone needs to stand up and stop it.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“It is the only truth I live by. Everything else is gone. We are made for each other, meant to be together. It doesn't matter what happens in this life or the next, Alina. We'll always find our way back to each other.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“This may be a piece of your own history, and it’s a history that was lost to you until now. I’ve helped people track their ancestors before, and the smallest things are sometimes unexpectedly intense.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“and I know that I love Wade. Sometimes I also kind of hate him, but mostly, I love him. That’s marriage sometimes. That’s just the way it is; the years can’t all be kind, because life isn’t always kind.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“Sometimes I also kind of hate him, but mostly, I love him. That’s marriage sometimes. That’s just the way it is; the years can’t all be kind, because life isn’t always”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“up than I felt. “Hitler wants land and power, and it is much easier to convince an army to die for you when you have an enemy to fight,” Father said, quite gently. “And the Jews make for an easy enemy, because people will always hate what is different.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“You must believe that if God allowed you to survive this far—there is a purpose to it. You must believe that there is work left to do on this Earth before you are released to peace. Hold tight to what you have left, Saul Weiss. And if all you have left is your faith, then you cling to it with every shred of strength you have left—do you hear me?”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“I know once I open the floodgates of feeling sorry for myself, I'll get a taste for it and it will destroy me.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“There are some moments in life that are distorted by anticipation. It has a way of warping our expectations—inflating them somehow.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“But as I read about World War II, I was inspired by so many stories of love and survival, even in the face of unimaginable oppression and cruelty. Tomasz’s, Alina’s and Saul’s story became clear in my mind as I marveled at the way that not even the worst of humanity is powerful enough to stamp out grace or hope or love.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“the long hard days sometimes make for very short years.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say

“Alina needs that help we discussed. Watch the road and the woods—there have been soldiers about.” Father nodded curtly, then positioned himself at the window in the kitchen.”
― Kelly Rimmer, The Things We Cannot Say