Quotes from Dreams of Joy

Lisa See ·  354 pages

Rating: (49.8K votes)


“As she spoke, I wanted to cry, because sometimes it's just so damn hard to be a mother. We have to wait and wait and wait for our children to open their hearts to us. And if that doesn't work, we have to bide our time and look for the moment of weakness when we can sneak back into their lives and they will see us and remember us for the people who love them unconditionally.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“Seeing something once is better than hearing about it a hundred times. Doing something once is better than seeing it a hundred times.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“A brave heart? It feels like a swollen and aching thing in my chest.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“My mother used to tell me that Heaven never seals off all exits.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“I came here to be happy, and I’m going to be happy. If I smile, then maybe I can convince my body just how happy I am.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy



“Miracles are everywhere, and as I watch my sister--forever, beautiful, forever my little sister--staring into the eyes of the one man she ever loved, I know that indeed things do return to the beginning. The world opens again, and I see a life of happiness without fear. I gaze at my family--complicated though it may be--and know that fate smiles on us.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“Model communes are the ones where the leaders lie the best and the biggest.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“It’s fair to say I don’t know what I’m doing. I like to plot my life and proceed carefully, but life doesn’t always follow a plan.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“No matter what you’re feeling or how desperate you become, always take a moral position. If you do that, God will watch over you.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“Maybe stories and memories are destined to be incomplete...”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy



“When you lose your home country, what do you preserve and what do you abandon?”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“spring comes, flowers fragrant, bird sings.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“The realization that truth, forgiveness, and goodness are more important than revenge, condemnation, and cruelty gives me courage and certainty.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“The lotus symbolizes purity, because it rises out of the mud but looks pristine.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“La felicità nasce dalla sofferenza, è questo ho intuito.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy



“winter gone, mountains clear, water sparkles.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“People are shaped by the earth and water around them.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“Tuhan memang menciptakan perempuan, namun Dia lupa menciptakan kebahagiaan.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“Waves of heat shimmy off the tarmac, and the air is stiflingly hot, with humidity that’s even worse”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“I thought I could use idealism to solve my inner conflicts, but in healing my inner conflicts I destroyed my idealism.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy



“To make an ox or water buffalo work so hard, it needs to be blinded and uninformed. That’s what the government is doing to the masses now.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“La felicità nasce dalla sofferenza, è questo che ho intuito.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“Non vi è ferita più profonda o dolorosa di quella inferta da coloro che sostengono di amarti di più.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


“BE KIND AND BENEVOLENT. MAKE A CASUAL STOP ON THE ENDLESS WAY TO THE FUTURE. and PUT ALL TROUBLES FROM YOUR MIND.”
― Lisa See, quote from Dreams of Joy


About the author

Lisa See
Born place: Paris, France
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“The war in Europe was over. Germans called it die Stunde Null, zero hour. Cities lay in ruins. Allied bombing had destroyed more than 1.8 million German homes. Of the 18.2 million men who had served in the German army, navy, Luftwaffe, and the Waffen-SS, a total of 5.3 million had been killed. Sixty-one countries had been drawn into a war Germany started. Some 50 million people were dead. The Third Reich was no more. Heinrich”
― Annie Jacobsen, quote from Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America


“Love isn’t meant to be hidden away and life is too short for shame.”
― Jay Bell, quote from Something Like Summer


“¿Cuál era el secreto de una relación? Ta vez todo dependía de que lo que otra persona siente por nosotros nos haga sentir bien con nosotros mismos. Sonaba erevesado, pero era posible. A lo mejor era verdad que no somos más que espejos para los demás y que lo único que queremos todos es que nos digan lo fantástico que somos. Y tal vez ese sentimiento se ve reforzado si todos los demás también consideran guapa, inteligente o única a esa persona que nos llena de halagos. Pero si eso fuera así, el único deseo de todo el mundo sería sentirse especial y obtener reconocimiento por ello. ¿O había algo más? ¿Había algún ingrediente intangible en la conexión entre dos personas? ¿Había en una relación algo más que el refuerzo de egos respectivos?”
― Holly Goldberg Sloan, quote from I'll Be There


“Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.”
― Noah Gordon, quote from Shaman


“One central characteristic of the Model T now generally forgotten is that it was the first car of consequence to put the driver’s seat on the left-hand side. Previously, nearly all manufacturers placed the driver on the outer, curb-side of the car so that an alighting driver could step out onto a grassy verge or dry sidewalk rather than into the mud of an unpaved road. Ford reasoned that this convenience might be better appreciated by the lady of the house, and so arranged seating for her benefit. The arrangement also gave the driver a better view down the road, and made it easier for passing drivers to stop and have a conversation out facing windows. Ford was no great thinker, but he did understand human nature. Such, in any case, was the popularity of Ford’s seating plan for the Model T that it soon became the standard adopted by all cars.”
― Bill Bryson, quote from One Summer: America, 1927


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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

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