All the Forgivenesses Quotes

“Worry is interest paid on troubles you ain’t had yet.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“but I hardly knowed nothing about Mama herself, what she was like. It was as if Mama was what she done, and not who she was.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“As we know, forgiveness of oneself is the hardest
of all the forgivenesses. —Joan Baez”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“Soft as the voice of an angel, breathing a lesson unheard,
Hope, with a gentle persuasion, whispers her comforting word.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“If, in the dusk of the twilight, dim be the region afar,
Will not the deepening darkness brighten the glimmering star?”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“I hated feeling like so much in my life come down to Dacia. She was like a hair stuck in my mouth, always had been. I couldn’t swallow her down, couldn’t spit her out.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“Grace wasn’t hard, like Mama taught me, though it was strong.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“Alta Bea brought out the worst in me, seemed like. Made me say things I didn’t feel, act like somebody I wasn’t, which wasn’t something I done except when I was with her.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“Mama always said, “Worry is interest paid on troubles you ain’t had yet.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“Something happens when you see your beloveds you last seen years ago, and you see the age on their face, but at the same time you also see them like you remember them.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“How come I used to be so busy from morning till night, and now I can’t hardly fill up the days? There was chickens to dress and ironing to get done, but seemed like they didn’t hardly take no time no more. My own chores didn’t seem to take much time neither. I hated feeling useless, which was what I felt like.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“the thing about all the men I knowed—they was afraid. Of what, I didn’t know. Not of us, not of women, of course not—but what, then? They was running from something all their lives, seemed like, running as fast as they could. What was they afraid of?”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“But them Kentucky hills, why, the sky there’s a lot smaller, peeking at you through the trees, the sunbeams broke up among the leaves, and in that paler light, the colors is real strong, deep, rich—blues and greens and purples and reds and oranges. After you’re in Kansas for a while, seems like the colors of Kentucky look like an oil painting up close—too loud to be real. Kansas, everthing’s real, no matter how close you look at it.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“It was hard to see down through time what my life would be like without her.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“I got a feeling I had sometimes, of my future life being big and far away and calling to me through the wind in the trees. I felt a sharp longing, though I didn’t know what for.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“It ain’t about ever right, never has been. It’s what we mean to each other—or I thought so, anyhow. Where you think I been these ten years? I know you been through a lot. I tried to go through it with you, much as I could. When you let me.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“Little Will.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“happen.”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses

“for a moment I was lost in thought, back home where everbody’s your cousin and you never wonder if somebody’s looking down on you,”
― Elizabeth Hardinger, All the Forgivenesses