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
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Popular quotes

“But sitting here beside this girl as unknown to him now as outer space, waiting for whatever she might say to unfreeze him, now he felt like he could see the edge or outline of what a real vision of hell might be. It was of two great and terrible armies within himself, opposed and facing each other, silent. There would be battle but no victor. Or never a battle- the armies would stay like that, motionless, looking across at each other and seeing therein something so different and alien from themselves that they could not understand, they could not hear each other's speech as even words or read anything from what their faces looked like, frozen like that, opposed and uncomprehending, for all human time. Two hearted, a hypocrite to yourself either way.”
― David Foster Wallace, quote from The Pale King


“Logan pulls out a chair at the table and motions for me to sit. But I suddenly feel little fingers tugging on the legs of my jeans. I look down at Hayley, who blinks her pretty blue eyes at me. Hayley is three, and we spent some time together when I was here before. “Welcome home,” she says. I set my pizza on the counter and reach for her. “Oh my goodness,” I breathe as I bend down and pick her up. She wraps herself around me and holds me close. She lets me go and whispers in my ear. “Are you staying for good?” She chews on her finger as she waits. “I’m staying forever and ever.” I am. I’m never leaving again, no matter what. Anything else we need, we can work out as a family. This ragtag bunch of boys and Hayley are as much a family to me as my parents are right now—they’re home. I set Hayley on the edge of the counter and cut a piece of cake for her. Her eyes gleam, and she smiles sheepishly at her father. “Food first,” Paul warns. I stick a fork in the cake and take a big bite, and then hold a smaller forkful out for her. Paul scrunches his brow and says, “Fine. One bite.” He holds up a finger in warning. Hayley grins, and I feed her the cake.”
― quote from Smart, Sexy and Secretive


“She put it away, locked up the turmoil that seeing, hearing, watching Arnie Meeks had made swirl inside her. No time, no place for it now. It would come back, she knew, spurting”
― Nora Roberts, quote from High Noon


“If Jesus Christ treated me like you do, I’d drive in the nails myself.”
― Nelson Algren, quote from The Man With the Golden Arm


“The spirit of rebellion can only exist in a society where a theoretical equality conceals great factual inequalities. The problem of rebellion, therefore, has no meaning except within our own Western society.”
― Albert Camus, quote from The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt


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