“If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Knowing can be a curse on a person's life. I'd traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth, and I didn't know which one was heavier. Which one took the most strength to carry around? It was a ridiculous question, though, because once you know the truth, you can't ever go back and pick up your suitcase of lies. Heavier or not, the truth is yours now.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can't remember who we are or why we're here.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“I have noticed that if you look carefully at people's eyes the first five seconds they look at you, the truth of their feelings will shine through for just an instant before it flickers away.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“After you get stung, you can't get unstung
no matter how much you whine about it.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Nobody around here had ever seen a lady beekeeper till her. She liked to tell everybody that women made the best beekeepers, 'cause they have a special ability built into them to love creatures that sting. It comes from years of loving children and husbands.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“The world will give you that once in awhile, a brief timeout; the boxing bell rings and you go to your corner, where somebody dabs mercy on your beat-up life.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“I hadn't been out to the hives before, so to start off she gave me a lesson in what she called 'bee yard etiquette'. She reminded me that the world was really one bee yard, and the same rules work fine in both places. Don't be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don't be an idiot; wear long sleeves and pants. Don't swat. Don't even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates while whistling melts a bee's temper. Act like you know what you're doing, even if you don't. Above all, send the bees love. Every little thing wants to be loved.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“We are so limited, you have to use the same word for loving Rosaleen as you do for loving Coke with peanuts. Isn't that a shame we don't have many more ways to say it?”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“When it's time to die, go ahead and die, and when it's time to live, live. Don't sort-of-maybe live, but live like you're going all out, like you're not afraid.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Sunset is the saddest light there is.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“And when you get down to it, Lily, that is the only purpose grand enough for a human life. Not just to love but to persist in love.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Drifting off to sleep, I thought about her. How nobody is perfect. How you just have to close your eyes and breathe out and let the puzzle of the human heart be what it is.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“There's nothing like a song about lost love to remind you how everything precious can slip from the hinges where you've hung it so careful.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“I realized it for the first time in my life: there is nothing but mystery in the world, how it hides behind the fabric of our poor, browbeat days, shining brightly, and we don't even know it.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“You gotta imagine what's never been.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“It's your time to live, don't mess it up.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“I can't think of anything I'd rather have more than somebody lovin' me.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“In a weird way I must have loved my little collection of hurts and wounds. They provided me with some real nice sympathy, with the feeling I was exceptional...What a special case I was.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“You think you want to know something, and then once you do, all you can think about is erasing it from your mind.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“The body knows things a long time before the mind catches up to them. I was wondering what my body knew that I didn't.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Nothing is fair in this world. You might as well get that straight right now”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Actually, you can be bad at something...but if you love doing it, that will be enough. - August Boatwright”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“Every human being on the face of the earth has a steel plate in his head, but if you lie down now and then and get still as you can, it will slide open like elevator doors, letting in all the secret thoughts that have been standing around so patiently, pushing the button for a ride to the top. The real troubles in life happen when those hidden doors stay closed for too long.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“You have to know when to prod and when to be quiet, when to let things take their course.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
“It was the first time I'd ever said the words to another person, and the sound of them broke open my heart.”
― Sue Monk Kidd, quote from The Secret Life of Bees
Sue Monk Kidd
Born place: in Sylvester, Georgia, The United States
See more on GoodReads
“Fuck!" He hit the door frame. It hurt. He did it again.
"Problems?"
"Yeah," said Gabriel. "Nick took the car."
Michael didn't even look up from the screen. "Huh. Didn't you do the same thing this morning?"
"Don't talk to me like I'm a little kid."
Now his brothers eyes flicked up. "I'm sorry, was that a mature adult punching the front door?”
― Brigid Kemmerer, quote from Spark
“To not extend forgiveness is to burn the bridge that we ourselves must cross.”
― Richard Paul Evans, quote from The Walk
“You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread. You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words: but most of your friends do not see it at all, and often wonder why, liking this, you should also like that. Again, you have stood before some landscape, which seems to embody what you have been looking for all your life; and then turned to the friend at your side who appears to be seeing what you saw -- but at the first words a gulf yawns between you, and you realise that this landscape means something totally different to him, that he is pursuing an alien vision and cares nothing for the ineffable suggestion by which you are transported. Even in your hobbies, has there not always been some secret attraction which the others are curiously ignorant of -- something, not to be identified with, but always on the verge of breaking through, the smell of cut wood in the workshop or the clap-clap of water against the boat's side? Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even in the best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night and day, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for? You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it -- tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest -- if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself -- you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say "Here at last is the thing I was made for". We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work. While we are, this is. If we lose this, we lose all.”
― C.S. Lewis, quote from The Problem of Pain
“When I joined the regiment my comrades said to me, there is one beast we fear more than the foe. An army marches on its stomach, so ’tis plain to see, that fool we call the cook has got to go! O the cook! O the cook! If words could kill, or just a dirty look, he’d have snuffed it long ago, turned his paws up doncha know, he’d be gladly written off the record book! What a greasy fat old toad, that assassin of the road, we tried to hire him to the enemy. But they smelt the stew he made, mercy on us they all prayed, we’ll surrender, you can have him back for free! O the cook! O the cook! He could poison a battalion with his chuck. I’ve seen him boilin’ cabbage, an’ the filthy little savage, takes a bath in it to wash off all the muck! He made a batch of scones, big grey lumpy solid ones, the Sergeant lost four teeth at just one bite. Then an officer ordered me, sling them at the enemy, an’ those that we don’t slay we’ll put to flight! O the cook! O the cook! He’s stirring porridge with his rusty hook. Playin’ hopscotch with the toast, he’s the one that we hate most, tonight we’re goin’ to roast that bloomin’ cook!” A”
― Brian Jacques, quote from Rakkety Tam
“A note for physicians: if you listen carefully to what patients say, they will often tell you not only what is wrong with them but also what is wrong with you.”
― Walker Percy, quote from Love in the Ruins
Vain
King's Cage
Ariel
Farewell, My Lovely
Falling into You
Piercing the Darknes...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.
