104 Quotes & Sayings By Mary Balogh

He wished someone in the course of history had thought of striking that word and all its derivatives from the English Language - happy, happier, happiest, happiness. What the devil did the words really mean anyway? Why not just the word pleasure, which was far more... well, pleasant. Mary Balogh

And infatuated be damned. He was near to being blinded by his attraction to her. He was in love, damn it all. He disliked her, he resented her, he disapproved of almost everything about her, yet he was head over ears in love with her, like a foolish schoolboy. He wondered grimly what he was going to do about it. He was not amused. Or in any way pleased. Mary Balogh

I would be consumed by you, ' she said, and blinked her eyes furiously when she felt them fill with tears. 'You would sap all the energy and all the joy from me. You would put out all the fire of my vitality.'' Give me a chance to fan the flames of that fire, ' he said, 'and to nurture your joy. Mary Balogh

It was now twenty minutes past four in the morning, allowing for the fact that the clock in the library of his town house was four minutes slow, as it had been for as far back as he could remember. He eyed it with a frown of concentration. Now that he came to think about it, he must have it set right one of these days. Why should a clock be forced to go throught its entire existence four minutes behind the rest of the world? It was not logical. The trouble was though, that if the clock were suddenly right, he would be forever confused and arriving four minutes early -- or did he mena late? -- for meals and various other appointments. That would agitate his servants and cause consternation in the kitchen. It was probably better to leave the clock as it was. . Mary Balogh

Did everyone make the most ghastly blunders at regularly intervals through their life and live to regret them ever afterward? Was everyone's life filled with confusing and contradictory mix of guilt and innocence, hatred and love, concern and unconcern, and any number of other pairings of polar opposites? Or were most people one thing or the other - good or bad, cheerful or crotchety, generous or miserly, and so on. Mary Balogh

Did she ever feel nostalgia for any of her girlhood dreams? But life was made up of a succession of dreams, some few to be realized, most to be set aside as time went on, one or two to persist for a lifetime. It was knowing when to abandon a dream, perhaps, that mattered and distinguished the successful people in life from the sad, embittered persons who never moved on from the first of life's great disappointments. Or from the airy dreamers who never really lived life at all. Mary Balogh

Ah, but dreams cannot be captured with promises, " he said. "Like water, they elude our grasp. But water is the staff of life. I believe your dream will come true if only because you will not compromise on it and let it go too lightly. Mary Balogh

My life will be what I make it, " he told her. "That is true for all of us all the time. We cannot know what the future will bring or how the events of the future will make us feel. We cannot even plan and feel any certainty that our most carefully contrived plans will be put into effect. Could I have predicted what happened to me in the Peninsula? Could you have predicted what happened to you in Cornwall? But those things happened to us nevertheless. And they changed our plans and our dreams so radically that we both might have been excused for giving up, for never planning or dreaming again, for never living again. That too is a choice we all have to make. . Mary Balogh

It was the challenge of life too, was it not? People could never be fully understood. They were ever changing, different people at different times and under different circumstances and influences. And always growing, always creating themselves anew. How impossible it was to know another human being. How impossible to know even oneself. Mary Balogh

This boy, " he said, indicating the paintings with one sweep of his arms, "was romantic. He thought that it was beauty that bound everything together. And for him it was true. Life had been beautiful for him. He was very young. He knew very little of life. He saw beauty but he did not feel any true passion. How could he? He did not know. He had not really encountered the force of beauty's opposite."" Are you more cynical now, then?" she asked him." Cynical, " he frowned, "No, not that. I know that there is an ugly side of life-and not just human life. I know that everything is not simply beautiful. I am not a romantic as this boy was. But I am not a cynic either. There is something enduring in all of life, Anne, something tough. Something. Something terribly weak yet incredibly powerful.. . Mary Balogh

Why had peace given place so soon to turmoil? To two separate solitudes? Because peace had been without thought? Without...integrity?How could she have felt like that without love? Was love essential? Did it even exist - the love she had dreamed of her life? If it did, it was too late now for her to find it. Must she make do with this instead, then? Only this? Pleasure without love? Mary Balogh

Falling in love was as much about receiving as it was giving, was it? It seemed selfish. It was not, though. It was the opposite. Keeping oneself from being loved was to refuse the ultimate gift. He had thought himself done with romantic love. He had thought himself an incurable cynic. He was not, though. He was only someone whose heart and mind, and very soul, had been battered and bruised. It was still - and always - safe to give since there was a certain deal of control to be exerted over giving. Taking, or allowing oneself to receive, was an altogether more risky business. For receiving meant opening up the heart again. Perhaps to rejection. Or disillusionment. Or pain. Or even heart break. It was all terribly risky. And all terribly necessary. And of course, there was the whole issue of trust.. Mary Balogh

The bad part is life continues. The good part is that the pain goes away. Mary Balogh

Life, she realized, so often became a determined, relentless avoidance of pain-of one's own, of other people's. But sometimes pain had to be acknowledged and even touched so that one could move into it and through it and past it. Or else be destroyed by it. Mary Balogh

One who has conquered every aspect of his pain except the deepest. Mary Balogh

Future indifferences is no consolation for present pain. Mary Balogh

But marriage is forever.'' Oh, not really, ' he assured her. 'Only until one of us dies.' Her eyes widened. 'I do not want you to die, ' she said.' Perhaps you will go first, ' he said, 'though I rather think I hope not. I would probably have grown accustomed to you by then and would miss you. Mary Balogh

But marriage is forever.'' Oh, not really, ' he assured her. 'Only until one of us dies.' Her eyes widened. 'I do not want you to die, ' she said.' Perhaps you will go first, ' he said, though I rather think I hope not. I would probably have grown accustomed to you by then and would miss you. Mary Balogh

His friend laughed. 'You missed your calling, Freddie, ' he said. 'You should have been one of the aforementioned clergy. Is this what marriage does to you? One shudders at the very idea. Mary Balogh

You are not by any manner of means the sort of woman I am in search of as a wife, and I am in a totally different universe from the husband you hope to find. But I feel a powerful urge to kiss you, for all that. Mary Balogh

But it is only people who have plenty of money who can despise it. To the rest of us it is important. It can at least put food in our stomachs clothes on our backs, and it can at least feed our dreams. Mary Balogh

All is artifice in my world, Constantine. Even me. Especially me. He taught me to be a duchess, to be an impregnable fortress, to be the guardian of my own heart, But he admitted that he could not teach me how or when to allow the fortress to be breached or my heart to be unlocked. It would simply happen, he said. he promised it would, in fact. But how is love to find me, even assuming it is looking?. Mary Balogh

People do understand the language of the heart, you know, even if the head does not always comprehend it. Mary Balogh

Families are wonderful institution, " he said. "I value mine more than I can possibly say. But each of us has an individual life to live, our own path to tread, our own destiny to forge. You can imagine, if you will, how my family wished to shelter and protect me and do my living for me so that I would never again know fear or pain or abandonment. Eventually I had to step clear of them-or I might have fallen into the temptation of allowing them to do just that. Mary Balogh

But that is what life is all about, he said. "It is about dreaming and making those dreams come true with effort and determination - and love. Mary Balogh

But why always think the worst of people? What would she be doing to herself if she adopted that attitude to life? It was better to think the best and be wrong than to think the worst and be wrong. Mary Balogh

And so silence and ...darkness hold happiness and joy?" he said softly." Assuredly, " she said, "provided one listens to the silence and gazes deeply into the darkness. Everything is there. Everything. Mary Balogh

Emotion, ' she told him, 'is not a reliable guide for our words and actions.'' There you are wrong, ' he said. 'Deep, true emotion is our surest guide. We make our greatest mistake when we allow our heads to rules ours hearts.'' Emotion is our human weakness., ' she said, 'reason our strength.'' And love, ' he said, 'is our destiny. Mary Balogh

Have you noticed, " she asked him, "how we live much of our lives in the past and most of the rest of it in the future? Have you noticed how often the present moment slips by quiet unnoticed? Mary Balogh

There were certain moments upon which the whole of the future course of one's life might turn. And almost inevitably they popped out at one without any warning at all, leaving one with no time to consider or engage in a reasoned debate with oneself. One had to make a split second decision, and much depended upon it. Perhaps everything. Mary Balogh

Except that love - that mysterious, vast, all-encompassing power - could not possibly be contained in a single word. Mary Balogh

I believe, ” he said gently, “we all have a perfect right to make ourselves unhappy if that is what we freely choose. But I am not sure we have the right to allow our own unhappiness to cause someone else’s. The trouble with life sometimes is that we are all in it together. Mary Balogh

He gazed up at the blue sky and knew that heaven–at least in this life–was neither a time nor a placeto be grasped and made into a possession. It came in fleeting moments and then went away again toleave one nostalgic and yearning and on the verge of tears. Very much on the verge of tears. And very frightened. Mary Balogh

One day you will learn that love does not always betray you. Mary Balogh

Sometimes even the imagination lets one down. Mary Balogh

Even friends need private spaces, if only within the depths of their own souls, where no one else is allowed to intrude. Mary Balogh

But if one had everything one could ever need or want, what was left to dream of? Mary Balogh

Love is wanting to be with someone all the time. It is accepting the other person with all good qualities and bad and not wanting to change any of them. It is wanting to give affection and approval and comfort and everything that is oneself, demanding nothing in return. It is - love is very difficult, Julia. It is an ideal, rarely achieved in reality because we are all selfish and imperfect beings. It is a dream, a goal, something to be aimed for. Mary Balogh

Was memory always as much of a burden as it could sometimes be a blessing. Mary Balogh

If you are never frightened, sir, you would never find out what you was made of and what you was capable of doing. You would never become a better man than what you started out being. P'raps this is what you will discover - what you are made of and what you are capable of. And when you finally do remember who you are, p'raps you will find that you have become a better man than he ever was. P'raps he was a man why never ever grew any more once he reached manhood. P'raps he needed to do something drastic like losing his memory so that he could get his life unstuck. Mary Balogh

I know it is something of a cliche to say that love makes all things possible, but I believe it does. It is not a magic wand that can be waved over life to make it all sweet and lovely and trouble free, but it can give the energy to fight the odds and win. Mary Balogh

The worst thing about loneliness is that it brings one face to face with oneself. Mary Balogh

The real meaning of things lies deep down and the real meaning of things is always beautiful because it is simply love. Mary Balogh

But there were certain moments in life that forever defined one as a person - in one's own estimation, anyway. And one's own self esteem, when all was said and done, was of far more importance than the fickle esteem of one's peers. Mary Balogh

There is nothing worse, is there, " she said, "than a past that has never been fully dealt with. One can convince oneself, that it is all safely in the past and forgotten about, but the very fact that we can tell ourselves that it is forgotten proves that it is not. Mary Balogh

The suffering of a loved one was in many ways worse than one's one suffering because it left one feeling so very helpless. Mary Balogh

I do believe in fate, Anne-not the blind fate that gives one no freedom of choice, but a fate that sets down a pattern for each of our lives and gives us choices, numerous choices, by which to find that pattern and be happy. Mary Balogh

She had never believed in fate. She still did not. It would be nonsense of freedom of will and choice, and it was through such freedom that we worked our way through life and learned what we needed to learn. But sometimes, it seemed to her, there was something, some sign, to nudge one along in a certain direction. What one chose to do with that nudge was up to that person. Mary Balogh

We are made up of everything we have ever been, Percy. It is the joy and the pain of our individuality. There are no two of us the same. Mary Balogh

It is stronge how smells can bring back vivid memories. Mary Balogh

Was he a pleasant man hiding behind a mask of seeming carelessness or an unpleasant man hiding behind a mask of charm & smiles? Or like most humans, was he a dizzying mix of contradictory charactersticks? Mary Balogh

I can be hurt, she said, only by people I respect. Mary Balogh

And he knew at that moment that love world never die, that it would never fade away altogether. The time might come when he would meet and marry someone else. He might even be reasonably happy. But there would always be a deep precious place in his heart that belonged to his first real love. Mary Balogh

Nothing is permanently perfect. But there are perfect moments and the will to choose what will bring about more perfect moments. Mary Balogh

Now I must live with the consequences of the choice I made. And I will not call it the wrong choice. That would be foolish and pointless. That choice led me to everything that has happened since, including this very moment, and the choices I make today or tomorrow or next week will lead me to the next and next present moments in my life. It is all a journey, Miss Jewell. I have come to understand that that is what life is all about-a journey and the courage and energy always to take the next step and the next without judgement about what was right and what was wrong. Mary Balogh

She bit her lower lip hard and blinked her eyes. There was such wistfulness and longing in his voice. Oh, she was going to give him back his eyes, or the next best thing, if it took her the rest of her life to do it. Mary Balogh

There had to be a reason why they were not going to marry. They had both been so adamant about it. What the devil was the reason? Mary Balogh

She had made reason and common sense her gods. She had allowed people who did not know what she knew or understand what she unstood to be her mentors. Mary Balogh

And she was terribly aware that she was alive. Not just living and breathing, but ...alive. Mary Balogh

Suddenly, and for the first time, he was at the center of his own life, living it and loving it. Mary Balogh

He had always felt that he lived on the edges of life, Constantine realized, watching everyone else living, sometimes helping them do it. Mary Balogh

He thought the library door would never open again, but that he would be left to live out the rest of his life rooted to the spot on the library carpet, afraid to move a muscle lest the house fall upon his shoulders. He deliberately shrugged them and shuffled his feel just to prove to himself that it could be done. Mary Balogh

I do not admire greatness that has no substance. Mary Balogh

It is foolish to regret anything form one's past. Mary Balogh

One longs and longs to be grown up, doesn't one?, " she said, "I dreamed of being eighteen and having a Season and meeting handsome gentlemen even apart from Dominic and falling in love with them and marrying him and living happily ever after. But life is not nearly as that simple when one finally does grow up. Mary Balogh

Tears never were worth the effort of crying them. Mary Balogh

Fear is a powerful beast, if it is allowed the mastery. Mary Balogh

Either way, he was always staring into a bottomless pit, or into a whirlpool that forever sucked him inexorably inward to its vortex. Mary Balogh

But a mother-son relationship is not a coequal one, is it? He is lonely with only you just as you are lonely with only him. Mary Balogh

Happy? Most of the time? Happiness is always a fleeting thing, " he said, "It never rests upon anyone as a permanent state, though many of us persist in believing in the foolish idea that if this would just happen or that we would be happy for the rest of our lives. I know moments of happiness just as most other people do. Perhaps I have learned to find it in ways that would pass some people by. I feel the summer heat here at this moment and see the trees and the water and hear that invisible gull overhead. I feel the novelty of having company when I usually come here alone. And this moment brings me happiness. Mary Balogh

If you have always suspected your sister of an inclination to madness, it will be my pleasure to confirm your worst fears. Mary Balogh

There is something infinitely better than happily-ever-after. There is happiness. Happiness is a living, dynamic thing, Eve, and has to be worked on every moment for the rest of our lives. It is a far more exciting prospect than that silly static idea of a happily-ever-after. Would you not agree?" - Aidan Bedwyn Mary Balogh

Every moment is a moment of decision, and every moment turns us inexorably in the direction of the rest of our lives. Mary Balogh

Could a love of that magnitude die? If it was true love, could it ever die? Was there such a thing as true love? Mary Balogh

Love does not last forever, then?"" He asked me the same thing this morning, " she said. "No, it does not - not love that has been betrayed. One realizes that one has loved a mirage, someone who never really existed. Not that love dies immediately or soon, even then. But it does die and cannot be revived. Mary Balogh

Love is a connection with another person, either through birth or through something else that I cannot even explain. It is often just an attraction at first. But it goes far deeper than that. It is a determination to care for the other person no matter what and to allow oneself to be cared for in return. It is a commitment to make the other happy and to be happy oneself. It is not possessive, but neither is it a victim. And it does not always bring happiness. Often it brings a great deal of pain, especially when the beloved is suffering and one feels impotent to comfort. It is what life is all about. It is openness and trust and vulnerability. . Mary Balogh

Why is it, " she asked, snuggling closer, "that I so often imagine myself running away and running free? Mary Balogh

I am still not used to being the possessor of such a grand title. I believe I shall have to start wearing a purple satin turban and carrying a lorgnette. Mary Balogh

After a few awkward moments, Lizzy joined them and they skipped along the avenue, the three of them, laughing and whooping and altogether making an undignified spectacle of themselves. Mary Balogh

Sometimes, one yearns for something. For the ultimate in happiness. I yearn for it, and don't know where to look for it any longer. And I don't know if I would recognize it if I found it. And the longer I look, the more selfish I grow. For I think only of my own happiness. i think I have lost the ability to make someone else happy. If I ever had it. And I suppose we can never be happy unless we can also give happiness. Mary Balogh

And I need you, my love, " he said. "I need you so much that I panic when I think that perhaps I will not be able to persuade you to come back with me to Enfield. I need you so much that I cannot quite contemplate the rest of my life if it must be lived without you. I need you so much that– Well, the words speak for themselves. I need you."" To look after Augusta?" she said. She dared not hear what he was surely saying. She dared not hope. "To look after Enfield? To provide you with an heir?"" Yes, " he said, and her heart sank like a stone to be squashed somewhere between her slippers and the parlor carpet." And to be my friend and my confidant and my comfort. And to be my lover. Mary Balogh

As he had once said to someone in England, though he did not care to remember whom, he had liked the sight of the sea because it represented his escape from England. And he had escaped. But she had said that perhaps it was from himself he wished to escape and that it could not be done. For wherever he went, he must inevitably take himself along too. Mary Balogh

Always guarding one's real, precious self in a cocoon of tranquility within a thousand masks. Life itself had become a secret affair. Mary Balogh

My mind cannot grasp forever, " she told him. "There must surely be an end somewhere. But the big question is-what it beyond the end? Mary Balogh

Perhaps she was just looking for love in the wrong places. In all the safe places. What if love was not safe at all? Mary Balogh

Black is the absence of all color. White is the presence of all colors. I suppose life must be one or the other. On the whole, though, I think I would prefer color to its absence. But then black does add depth and texture to color. Perhaps certain shades of gray are necessary to a complete palette. Even unrelieved black. Ah, a deep philosophical question. Is black necessary to life, even a happy life? Could we ever be happy if we did not at least occasionally experience misery? . Mary Balogh