The Engineer's Wife Quotes

“Alas, wisdom is often gained after we first have need of it.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“Fortune favors the brave and never helps a man who does not help himself.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“...Mother had always advised against sharing domestic troubles outside the family. They would only return as unwelcome rumor. But I trusted Eleanor, so when we stopped to admire the waves crashing and the cry of the seagulls, I spoke of the changes in my marriage, hoping for some insight to my dilemma.
'My dear,' Eleanor said, 'you can't expect a marriage to remain as it is in the beginning. If your souls continued to burn for each other in that way, you would be cinders.'
'Then what is the point? Why do we marry for life, only to see love fade away?'
'Ah, but true love doesn't fade away. It changes, deepens. It seems to disappear at times, only to come back in a different way. Think of early love like a wave in the ocean, building and building until it tumbles from its own height. Then the calm, the drawing back, only to swell and crash again. When you get past the breakers, you don't feel the crash, but the water is still lifting and falling in life's rhythm.'
...I adjusted my hat to better shield my eyes from the blinding sun. 'It seems I pushed through the breakers only to find my husband wasn't with me on the other side.'
'Then you must swim until you find him.' Eleanor kicked seaweed from the path of sandpipers, skittering from approaching foam. 'Don't be tempted back into the breakers, seeking another for the journey. You may find the ocean spits you back out.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“But perhaps a protective barrier exists between any two adults, preventing them from being sensible to all the other’s pain. To feel it all would render one useless as a support.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“Risks must be taken for progress to occur.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“Seeing plans on paper come to life was like watching an angel get her wings.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“The Star that watched you in your sleep Has just put out his light. ‘Good-day, to you on earth,’ he said, ‘Is here in heaven Good-night. But tell the Baby when he wakes To watch for my return; For I’ll hang out my lamp again When his begins to burn.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“Muntz metal?”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“The cold bit into my flesh, the water turbid and grating on my eyes.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“Then I stepped down the long ladder, through the narrow passageway between courses and courses of cold stone, to the lower hatch.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“I slumped into Wash’s chair and closed my eyes, rubbed the walnut roundels, conjuring a genie to appear with answers.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“How is garment design any different from engineering? Analyze the problem, create a design to solve it. Choose your materials, build to specifications.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“God made toddlers adorable to make up for their swath of destruction.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“The world is full of magic, my dear. You just have to know where to find it.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“Each year, we renew a pact: to work twice as hard, be twice as good, and have twice as much fun—for Elizabeth.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“deepens. It seems to disappear at times, only to come back in a different way. Think of early love like a wave in the ocean, building and building until it tumbles from its own height. Then the calm, the drawing back, only to swell and crash again. When you get past the breakers, you don’t feel the crash, but the water is still lifting and falling in life’s rhythm.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“Do you love me or the idea of me?"
Of course I loved him, but there were many sorts of love. Parental love, brotherly love, friendship, and there was passionate love, which burns brightly and swiftly, then is replaced with either the slow and steady love of lifetime partners or the ashes of boredom and regret.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“Ah, but true love doesn’t fade away. It changes, deepens. It seems to disappear at times, only to come back in a different way. Think of early love like a wave in the ocean, building and building until it tumbles from its own height. Then the calm, the drawing back, only to swell and crash again. When you get past the breakers, you don’t feel the crash, but the water is still lifting and falling in life’s rhythm.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife

“Indeed. Tenements will significantly deflate the value of my Connecticut properties. Long Island is much better suited to that way of life, and that is an unselfish observation of fact. The faster the bridge is built, the more quickly the immigrants will discover it to be the perfect home for them.”
― Tracey Enerson Wood, The Engineer's Wife