James Herriot · 378 pages
Rating: (61.1K votes)
“back of the tongue and into the mouth, and when it came within”
― James Herriot, quote from All Things Bright and Beautiful
“That ewe's life had been saved not by medicinal therapy but simply by stopping her pain and allowing nature to do its own job of healing. It was a lesson I have never forgotten; the animals confronted with severe continuous pain and the terror and shock that goes with it will often retreat even into death, and if you can remove that pain amazing things can happen. It is difficult to explain rationally but I know that it is so.”
― James Herriot, quote from All Things Bright and Beautiful
“Sometimes in our job you feel you just can't win. If you take too long you're no good, if you're too quick the visit wasn't necessary.”
― James Herriot, quote from All Things Bright and Beautiful
“As I trailed dumbly up the next flight it seemed strange that we had never said goodbye. We didn’t know when, if ever, we would see each other again yet neither of us had said a word. I don’t know if Siegfried wanted to say anything but there was a lot try trying to burst from me.
I wanted to thank him for being a friend as well as a boss, for teaching me so much, for never letting me down. There were other things, too, but I never said them.
Come to think of it, I’ve never even thanked him for that fifty pounds…until now.”
― James Herriot, quote from All Things Bright and Beautiful
“couldn’t be persuaded to part with him.”
― James Herriot, quote from All Things Bright and Beautiful
“When I am no longer a limp noodle and can actually compel my limbs to function, I get off the table and back into my robe. Damien and I leave at the same time, and Jamie’s door opens as we’re passing. She looks between me and Damien, then glances sideways at her masseuse, a tall blond man with large, capable-looking hands.
“You know,” Jamie says dryly, “nothing personal, but I don’t think I got the same level of service that she did.”
To his credit, the masseuse smiles. “Come,” he says, gesturing for her to follow.
“That’s the problem,” she mutters to me as she passes, “I didn’t.”
― J. Kenner, quote from Release Me
“How wonderful it would be, frankly, if everybody in the world would suddenly lose his sight or forget the existence of light. Immediately, there would be agreement about form. Everybody would accept the fact that a loaf of bread is a loaf of bread whether triangular or round. The girl a little while ago would have kept her eyes shut and listened to my voice. If she had, perhaps we could have become friendly and I could have taken her to the playground and we could have eaten ice cream together. Just because there was light, she heedlessly thought that a triangular loaf of bread was not bread but a triangle. This thing called light is itself transparent, but it apparently changes into something nontransparent.”
― Kōbō Abe, quote from The Face of Another
“I know you’ve lost your husband. I know every day is a battle for you because you miss him. I’m not trying to take his place with you or the twins. I just want to fit into your life.”
― Heidi McLaughlin, quote from My Unexpected Forever
“...you never knew anybody completely. Not even yourself.”
― quote from Sixteenth Summer
“However much you love somebody, you should always keep a part of yourself to yourself. Never give it all. You can never be yourself otherwise.”
― Aidan Chambers, quote from Dying to Know You
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