Quotes from The Girl Who Came Home

“Life is fragile Grace – it is no more than a petal of cherry blossom; thriving and in full bloom one minute and blown to the ground by a sudden gust of wind the next. We shouldn’t take our life for granted and we should do whatever we can to make ourselves happy.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“Now you look here. All your father ever dreamed of for you was to do something you loved in life. He didn't care about fancy qualifications or fancy clothes or cars, just that you were both happy and fulfilled. He was so excited about your dreams for a career.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“Never leave yourself open to regret Grace. We can only make a decision when we know the choices we are faced with. If we shy away, turn our backs and hide, we will simply never know. And that is when you end up old and wondering and regretting. Live a life of hope. Don’t live a life of regret.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“you can always find a reason to begin again, whatever life has in store for you.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“Good news comes in large packages”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“The girl who had left Ireland was gone to the bottom of the ocean with the rest of them.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“I suppose people move on, history moves on, and there will, sadly, always be something more terrible waiting around the corner.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“On an unknown path, every foot is slow.’ Take your time,”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“Life is fragile, she heard Maggie saying, we never know what’s waiting around the corner.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“On an unknown path, every foot is slow.’ Take your time, Grace. Take one step at a time.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“here now; that it was this almost insignificant old lady who, as”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“And as the smart ship grew In stature, grace, and hue In shadowy silent distance grew the Iceberg too. —THOMAS HARDY, FROM “THE CONVERGENCE OF THE TWAIN”(LINES ON THE LOSS OF TITANIC), 1912”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“On an unknown path, every foot is slow.’ Take your time, Grace. Take one step”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“As the spring months gave way to summer and then the first leaves of autumn started to fall from the trees by the lakeside, Séamus resolved to sell his da’s house and their small plot of land and travel to England with the money to work in the cotton mills. At least there he would have no reminders of the love he had known and lost. At least there he might stand a chance of putting Maggie Murphy and the horrors of Titanic from his mind. Fate had decided his path in life, and he now had to walk that path, wherever it might lead him.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“merrymaking. Yes, Katie would enjoy America, Frances thought as she put on her coat and her hat; in fact, America would enjoy Katie. She left her apartment block and, crossing the road, walked the short distance to the Ninth Avenue Elevated line at South Ferry. Although the elevated line took longer, she preferred not to take the subway system, being slightly claustrophobic. The idea of speeding along in a small underground train made her feel dizzy, so she preferred to travel aboveground by the El for her day of work as a domestic at the Walker-Browns’ residence. As she took her familiar journey north that morning, along Greenwich Street and Battery Place to Gansevoort Street in lower Manhattan and on to Ninth Avenue”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“spend the day cleaning the houses of those businessmen,”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“Grace loved the wildness of the wind, the way it whispered through the barley fields and sent ripples rushing along the rivers and lakes, and the clouds hurtling across the sky. To a girl who had spent her childhood outdoors, the wind brought a feeling of reckless freedom, reminding her that she was alive, feeding her soul with a new energy.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“On an unknown path, every foot is slow.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“Never leave yourself open to regret, Grace. We can only make a decision when we know the choices we are faced with. If we shy away, turn our backs and hide, we will simply never know. And that is when you end up old and wondering and regretting. Live a life of hope. Don’t live a life of regret.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“Life is fragile, Grace—it is no more than a petal of cherry blossom: thriving and in full bloom one minute and blown to the ground by a sudden gust of wind the next. We shouldn’t take our life for granted, and we should do whatever we can to make ourselves happy.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“Her father had once told her that water has a memory; that every rock, every stone, every grain of muddy sediment leaves something of a fingerprint in the water that flows over it. Grace liked this idea, imagining the water of the great lakes and oceans of the world to echo with the memories of the places, people, and events it had passed on its journey.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“We shouldn’t take our life for granted, and we should do whatever we can to make ourselves happy.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“Life is fragile Grace – it is no more than a petal of cherry blossom; thriving and in full bloom one minute and blown to the ground by a sudden gust of wind the next. We shouldn’t take our life for granted and we should do whatever we can to make ourselves happy.’ She”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“way through the crowd that had gathered on”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“If something’s worth doing, then it’s worth doing properly, even if it is only offering a biscuit with a cup of tea.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

“It wasn’t worth agonizing over or wishing for things to be different or declaring that life was cruel in its playing out; that was just how it was, and how it would always be.”
― Hazel Gaynor, quote from The Girl Who Came Home

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Popular quotes

“Stătea întinsă pe spate cu braţele desfăcute, ca într-o sfârşeală din dragoste ; de atâta voluptate timpul i se părea de bună seamă fără sfârşit şi cânta, mai mult în suspine, un cântecel oarecare.
Văzând că el rămâne tăcut, dus pe gânduri, tresări speriată şi începu să-l smucească apoi ca un copil, spunându-i :
- Hai, vino, aici ne sufocăm.
Se îmbrăţişară, trupul ei puţintel ardea sub mâinile lui K., se rostogoliră cu câţiva metri mai încolo într-o inconştienţă din care K. încerca mereu să se smulgă făcând eforturi zadarnice, se loviră cu un zgomot surd de uşa lui Klamm şi apoi rămaseră culcaţi în micile băltoace de bere şi în alte gunoaie răspândite pe podea. Acolo petrecură ore întregi, ore de răsuflare în comun, de bătăi de inimă comune, ore în care K. avea mereu senzaţia că se rătăceşte pe meleaguri străine sau că a ajuns atât de departe ca nimeni înaintea lui, într-o străinătate unde nici măcar aerul nu avea vreun comportament din atmosfera de acasă, unde trebuie să te sufoci de înstrăinare şi unde, împresurat de tentaţiile ei absurde, nu poţi face totuşi altceva decât să mergi înainte, să rătăceşti mai departe. Aşa că nu simţi spaimă în primul moment, ci mai degrabă o revenire consolatoare din obnubilaţie, când auzi că o voce profundă, poruncitor-calmă, o strigă pe Frieda din camera lui Klamm. "Frieda !" îi zice K. la ureche, transmiţându-i astfel chemarea. Mânată de o supunere de-a dreptul înnăscută, Frieda voia să sară în picioare, dar apoi îşi aminti unde se află, îşi întinse braţele, râse încetişor şi zise :
- Cum îţi închipui că o să mă duc. Nu mai mă duc niciodată la el.
K. voia să o contrazică, s-o convingă să se ducă la Klamm, începu să strângă de pe jos ce mai rămăsese din bluza ei, dar nu era în stare să spună nimic, era prea fericit s-o ţină pe Frieda între mâinile lui, prea fericit şi temător în acelaşi timp, căci i se păre că dacă Frieda îl părăseşte, îl părăseşte tot ce-i al lui.”
― Franz Kafka, quote from Slottet

“But water doesn't care for human sorrows. It flows without slowing or quickening its pace in the darkness of the earth, where only stones will hear.”
― Emmi Itäranta, quote from Memory of Water

“Sometimes in a marriage, it is easier to just buy peace and pay the price of swallowing your ego and keeping quiet.”
― Preeti Shenoy, quote from The Secret Wish List

“That’s what we’ve lost, you know. What you’ve lost; all of you. A sense of wonder and awe and . . . sin. These people know there are still things they don’t know, things that can still go wrong, things they can still do wrong.”
― Iain M. Banks, quote from The State of the Art

“Because she deserved more than me. She deserved someone who could give her the whole universe.”
― Jacqueline Rayner, quote from Doctor Who: The Stone Rose

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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.

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.

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