Quotes from A Week in Winter

Maeve Binchy ·  464 pages

Rating: (35.4K votes)


“How will I explain it all … to everybody?” “You know, people don’t have to explain things nearly as much as you think they do.”
― Maeve Binchy, quote from A Week in Winter


“It’s a funny old world. Once you realize that, you’re halfway there.”
― Maeve Binchy, quote from A Week in Winter


“Her life was like her house—a colorful fantasy where anything was possible if you wanted it badly enough.”
― Maeve Binchy, quote from A Week in Winter


“a piper from the area called John Paul. Of course he did. Everyone knew”
― Maeve Binchy, quote from A Week in Winter


“Winnie’s silver-and-black jacket might be too dressy. She wore a”
― Maeve Binchy, quote from A Week in Winter



About the author

Maeve Binchy
Born place: in Dalkey, County Dublin, Ireland
Born date May 28, 1940
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Popular quotes

“A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked:

‘Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?’
His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson:
I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.’

Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special.
‘But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!’

‘That depends on how you look at things. It has five qualities which, if you manage to hang on them, will make you a person who is always at peace with the world.’

‘First quality: you are capable of great things, but you must never forget that there is a hand guiding your steps. We call that hand God, and He always guides us according to His will.’
‘Second quality: now and then, I have to stop writing and use a sharpner. That makes the pencil suffer a little, but afterwards, he’s much sharper. So you, too, must learn to bear certain pains and sorrows, because they will make you a better person.
‘Third quality: the pencil always allows us to use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. This means that correcting something we did is not necessarily a bad thing; it helps to keep us on the road to justice.’
‘Fourth quality: what really matters in a pencil is not its wooden exterior, but the graphite inside. So always pay attention to what is happening inside you.’
‘Finally, the pencil’s fifth quality: it always leaves a mark. in just the same way, you should know that everything you do in life will leave a mark, so try to be conscious of that in your every action”
― Paulo Coelho, quote from Like the Flowing River


“each generation has to create the image of God that works for it.”
― Karen Armstrong, quote from A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam


“All for owls and owls for all!”
― Kathryn Lasky, quote from The Capture


“Up to a point a person’s life is shaped by environment, heredity, and changes in the world about them. Then there comes a time when it lies within their grasp to shape the clay of their life into the sort of thing they wish it to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune or the quirks of fate. Everyone has the power to say, "This I am today. That I shall be tomorrow.”
― Louis L'Amour, quote from The Walking Drum


“You're wrong Heinrich. While it might seem easy to believe, you and I aren't actually the same. You've been fighting someone else's war, you've been obeying orders, you've been carrying out a part in his plan. You've served other people all your life, for a goal that you won't even see accomplished: that's your defeat.”
― quote from Q


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