Quotes from Mercy

Jodi Picoult ·  400 pages

Rating: (41.2K votes)


“You know it's never fifty-fifty in a marriage. It's always seventy-thirty, or sixty-forty. Someone falls in love first. Someone puts someone else up on a pedestal. Someone works very hard to keep things rolling smoothly; someone else sails along for the ride.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“Three months ago, if you asked me, I would have told you that if you really loved someone, you’d let them go. But now I look at you, and I dreamed about Maggie, and I see that I’ve been wrong. If you really love someone, Allie, I think you have to take them back.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“This was something she would keep hidden within herself, maybe in place of the knot of pain and anger she had been carrying under her breastbone...a security blanket, an ace up her sleeve. She might never use it, but she would always feel its presence like a swelling secret stone, and that way when she let go of the rage, she would not feel nearly as empty.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“Traveling is all very well and good as long as you knew there is a place or person you can call home”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“If you loved someone, really loved them, would you let them go?”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy



“I once heard someone on a bus say that this guy had gotten under her skin. And it struck me as a remarkable thought - that someone would affect you so deeply they'd always be a part of you.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“If God wanted us to act on instinct, we wouldn't have the power of reason.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“There's a lot of things you can't see if you aren't' looking.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“There are some weapons you can't protect yourself against.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“The way i see it, love is just a bigger, stickier form of trust.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy



“How foolish it is to run away with a man who's already run away with someone else...”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“I'd like to say that this time I'd kill myself too..but I've never had that kind of courage.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“You have everything," she said slowly, as if she were explaining the order of the world to a small child. "A family, a great job, a lot of people who look up to you. You've got a place to go home to." She smiled a little. "So go.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“Why is it that only in the very beginnings of a relationship are you aware of the heat coming from inside a person, of the number of inches you would have to move for your shoulders to brush as if it were an accident?”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“He thought of the grammar of Gaelic, in which you did not say you were in love withsomeone, but that you “had love toward” her, as if itwere a physical thing you could present and hold—a bundle of tulips, a golden ring, a parcel of tenderness.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy



“The first person you fell in love with stole your heart. The first person you made love with stole your soul. And if these were one and the same, you were damned.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“When she had packed all the artifacts that made up their personal history into liquor store boxes, the house became strictly a feminine place. She stood with her hands on her hips, stoically accepting the absence of old Boston Celtics coasters and the tangle of fishing poles, the old dartboard from a Scots pub, the toolbox and downhill skis, the silky patterned ties which sat in the base of one box like a writing mass of snakes. Without these things, one tended to notice the bright eyelet curtains, the vase filled with yawning crocuses, a needlepoint pillow ... Overall, the house looked much like her apartment had eight years ago, before she had met him.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“She knew how you went about falling in love; she did not know how you went about falling into trust.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“Nothing emboldens sin so much as mercy”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“He was suffering from wanderlust, complicated by the tension of knowing that he was rooted to this town by something as simple as his name.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy



“You can't buy a clean conscience.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“Then you're the one."
Allie blinked at him. "The one what?"
"The one who loves more." ... "You know it's never fifty-fifty in a marriage. It's always seventy-thirty, or sixty-forty. Someone falls in love first. Someone always puts someone else up on a pedestal. Someone works very hard to keep things rolling smoothly; someone else sails along for the ride.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“What power has love but forgiveness? In other words by its intervention what has been done can be undone. What good is it otherwise? —William Carlos Williams, “Asphodel, That Greeny Flower”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“It was tough to admit to yourself that someone else had more courage than you would in the same situation, or that it was possible to love someone in a way that you had not personally experienced.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“Virtual reality is the willing suspension of disbelief,”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy



“town. In the back of his”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“Did you ever look down at yourself and realise that finally you had it all? Did you ever feel that everything was so right in your life you'd have nowhere to go but downhill?”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


“A lie of omission was much simpler than admitting to yourself you were going against the wishes of the person you idolised.”
― Jodi Picoult, quote from Mercy


Video

About the author

Jodi Picoult
Born place: in Nesconset, Long Island, New York,, The United States
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Always a good idea,” I say. We’re quiet a minute. Finally she says, “How much do you charge?” “A thousand”
― John Locke, quote from Promise You Won't Tell?


“Humans have always preferred to live their lives​ by daylight. I used to think it was because human beings have crappy night vision, and it wasn't until I got older and more cynical that I realized it was because they have less to be afraid of during the day.”
― Seanan McGuire, quote from Rosemary and Rue


“Not to carry the past is intelligence, to die to the past every moment is intelligence, to remain fresh and innocent is intelligence. Donald was driving his sports car down the main avenue when suddenly he noticed to his rear a flashing red light. It was a police car. Quickly Donald pulled over to the side. “Officer,” he blurted, “I was only doing twenty-five in a thirty-five-mile zone.” “Sir,” said the officer, “I just—” “Furthermore,” interrupted Donald indignantly, “as a citizen I resent being frightened like this!” “Please,” continued the officer, “calm down, relax—” “Relax!” shouted Donald, overwrought. “You’re going to give me a traffic ticket, and you want me to relax!” “Mister,” pleaded the officer, “give me a chance to talk. I am not giving you a ticket.” “No?” said Donald, astonished. “I just wanted to inform you that your right rear tire is flat.” But nobody is ready to listen to what the other is saying. Have you ever listened to what the other is saying? Before a word is uttered, you have already concluded. Your conclusions have become fixed; you are no longer liquid. To become frozen is to become idiotic, to remain liquid is to remain intelligent. Intelligence is always flowing like a river. Unintelligence is like an ice cube, frozen. Unintelligence is always consistent, because it is frozen. It is definite, it is certain. Intelligence is inconsistent, it is flowing. It has no definition, it goes on moving according to situations. It is responsible, but it is not consistent.”
― Osho, quote from Intelligence: The Creative Response to Now


“Max paused as a radical idea hit him. Really radical. The kind that would either save them or damn the entire world. Too bad he didn't know which and wouldn't be able to tell until he pulled the switch.”
― Sherrilyn Kenyon, quote from Dragonbane


“the confidence people express often reflects their personalities rather than their knowledge, memory, or abilities.”
― quote from The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us


Interesting books

Who Wrote the Bible?
(4.6K)
Who Wrote the Bible?
by Richard Elliott Friedman
The Way of the Dragon
(2.9K)
The Way of the Drago...
by Chris Bradford
Vivian Apple at the End of the World
(4.5K)
Vivian Apple at the...
by Katie Coyle
The Boy on the Wooden Box
(12.2K)
Breaking Even
(4.2K)
Worth The Fall
(1.8K)
Worth The Fall
by Mara Jacobs

About BookQuoters

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.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.