Bette Greene · 203 pages
Rating: (14.6K votes)
“Even if you forget everything else I want you to always remember that you are a person of value, and you have a friend who loved you enough to give you his most valued possession.”
“Like the Bible tells us, when a man will lay down his life for a friend, well, then there ain't no greater love in this here world than that.”
“And marking off time struck me as something like counting empty spaces—spaces you know can't ever be filled.”
“It seems to me that a man who is incapable of humor is capable of cruelty.”
“What do you know about sooner or later? Is a moment only a moment when you're in pain?”
“A person's got to think, otherwise that person's no better than a trained seal balancing a ball on his nose. If only that seal could think, he'd know he was making a thousand children laugh.”
“Keep in mind that life produces no maestros, only students of varying shades of ineptitude.”
“I wondered if a blessing is still a blessing if it lasts for only a little while.”
“Fun, like champagne bubbles, can't completely fill you up.”
“I believe that love is better than hate. And that there is more nobility in building a chicken coop than in destroying a cathedral.”
“The ways of the Lord are filled with wonder and mystery.”
“When people's emotions are involved they don't want to listen.”
“Folks keep forgetting that wishing don't make nothing so, but prayer sometimes do.”
“The secret is in absolutely refusing to let the river beat you down. If I had to, I'd measure my progress in inches. One more inch I've swum—one less inch to swim. Once you know the secret, then nobody's river can bring you down.”
“Sometimes when a person be thinking about one thing it don't mean they is mad about another thing.”
“One thing you can say about him is that he's appreciative. He's just happy having someone to sit with.”
“The secret is in absolutely refusing to let the river beat you down.”
“But you, Pearl, never liked anything once it was yours.”
“My father chose acquiescence and life rather than resistance and death. Not a very admirable choice, but a very human one.”
“My deception was believed because it was built on a foundation of truth … Hitler's first layer is an undeniable truth, such as: The German workers are poor. The second layer is divided equally between flattery and truth: The German worker deserves to be prosperous. The third layer is fabrication: The Jews and the Communists and Jews have stolen what is rightfully yours.”
“My heart wasn’t where Mike Seaver’s was—or the bulk of the male population’s. I never got a DUI because I didn’t drink. The only thing I ever smoked was a ham for Thanksgiving. Maybe I would have had more free time to get into trouble with girls if I wasn’t so busy killing rats to feed my snakes. All I wanted was to find one girl and be with her for life. July 25, 1987 I really wish that I will meet someone that is so special, and wants to be with me as much as I want to be with her and who will be excited for me about my career and will not be interested in Kirk Cameron the actor, star of Growing Pains. I’m looking for someone who could be my best friend. Someone who is not the least bit phony but who is just so honest and open about her feelings and who genuinely cares about mine and wants to share her feelings with me. Not too long after I wrote that journal entry, I met a girl on the set. She came in for a quick guest role, and we began seeing each other off set. I grew very fond of her and her family—especially her father, who later became very instrumental in answering my questions about God. Within a year, my immaturity had made a royal mess of that relationship and left that sweet girl heartbroken and confused. She was the last girl I went out with until the most breathtaking woman in the world entered my life.”
“I asked him if he thought “there” was better than “here.” “Not better,” he said. “I mean, my great-great-grandpap got his leg shot off. But I feel like it was bigger somehow.” Hawkins flipped through pages of Civil War pictures. “At work, I mix dyes and put them in a machine. I’m thirty-six and I’ve spent almost half my life in Dye House No. 1. I make eight dollars sixty-one cents an hour, which is okay, ’cept everyone says the plant will close and go to China.” He put the book back on the shelf. “I just feel like the South has been given a bum deal ever since that War.”
“There are two kinds of hope: the kind you couldn't do anything about and the kind you could. And even if the kind you could do something about wasn't what you'd originally wanted, it was still worth doing. A rainy day is better than no day. A small happiness can make a big sadness less sad.”
“I want you to close your eyes. I want you to fall asleep first."
"Why?" She asked suddenly afraid he would slip out of the room as soon as she did.
"Because I'll be here in the morning.”
“Dead souls have more to say than living ones.”
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