Beautiful Things Quotes

“Pain is our universal condition. People can go through life without finding love, but no one lives for long without experiencing real hurt. It can connect us or it can isolate us. I vacillated between the two.”
― Hunter Biden, Beautiful Things: A Memoir

“knowing which the fuck way was up. All my energy revolved around smoking drugs”
― Hunter Biden, Beautiful Things: A Memoir

“There were also times, I have to admit, when I felt as if no one else could understand my pain. It seemed narcissistic even to contemplate. Yet that didn't make it feel any less true. Believing that your pain is exceptional doesn't lessen anyone else's. Pain is our universal condition. People can go through life without finding love, but no one lives long without experiencing real hurt. It can connect us or isolate us.”
― Hunter Biden, Beautiful Things: A Memoir

“There were also times, I have to admit, when I felt as if no one else could understand my pain. It seemed narcissistic even to contemplate. Yet that didn't make it feel any less true. Believeing that your pain us exceptional doesn't lessen anyone else's. Pain is our universal condition. People can go through life without finding love, but no one lives long without experiencing real hurt. It can connect us or isolate us.”
― Hunter Biden, Beautiful Things: A Memoir

“I felt the astonishing luck of a man who'd agreed to meet a woman for coffee when it was all but impossible for him to leave a hotel room without a crack pipe in his hand, and who then fell in love at first sight - at first glance.”
― Hunter Biden, Beautiful Things: A Memoir

“One day I hope to be strong enough to go back to see Rhea, in that very dark place she resides, and do what I can to get her in a position where she wants to be saved. I don't want Rhea to believe that things will get better only by her dying. Until then, her lesson is stark and unrelenting and holy: we're all just human beings, trying as hard as we fucking can.”
― Hunter Biden, Beautiful Things: A Memoir

“I was not consciously aware, however, of how much her loss represented a missing piece of the family puzzle. While that hole was filled with something very special, what was lost was never recovered. It was as if someone had torn a section from a painting and replaced it with a lovely likeness. Our family remained a beautiful if reconfigured composition, one that was born out of tragedy and rearranged by an overwhelming desire to make sure that Beau and I were okay. Yet for me, that original piece was always missing, always gone.”
― Hunter Biden, Beautiful Things: A Memoir

“Dad swiftly learned that if he didn't put an opponent's character front and center, he often could find a way to change minds or work out a compromise. No one walks out of a meeting when you say, "I don't think you understand the ramifications of what you're doing, how people won't have access to things they need in their daily lives." That prompts debate. But if you tell an opponent, "You're just a mean-spirited jackass who's clearly prejudiced against people with disabilities"—well, if you're Jesse Helms, or anyone else for that matter, the conversation is over.
That lesson, long a foundational one for my dad and our family, is one that too many politicians today have failed to pick up. The result is the toxic atmosphere that blew the door wide open for somebody like Trump, who has since turned that lesson on its head. Trump's motives can and should be questioned because, hell, most of the time he flat-out states them. And take my word, those motives ain't pretty.”
― Hunter Biden, Beautiful Things: A Memoir