Quotes From "The Cider House Rules" By John Irving

It´s natural to want someone you love to do what you want, or what you think would be good for them, but you have to let everything happen to them. You can't interfere with people you love any more than you're supposed to interfere with people you don't even know. And that's hard, ..., because you often feel like interfering -you want to be the one who makes the plans. John Irving

It’s natural to want someone you love to do what you want, or what you think would be good for them, but you have to let everything happen to them. You can’t interfere with people you love any more than you’re supposed to interfere with people you don’t even know. And that’s hard. Because you often feel like interfering–you want to be the one who makes the plans. . You can’t protect people, kiddo, all you can do is love them. John Irving

Here is the trap you are in.. And it's not my trap– I haven't trapped you. Because abortions are illegal, women who need and want them have no choice in the matter, and you–because you know how to perform them–have no choice, either. What has been violated here is your freedom of choice, and every woman's freedom of choice, too. If abortion was legal, a woman would have a choice–and so would you. You could feel free not to do it because someone else would. But the way it is, you're trapped. Women are trapped. Women are victims, and so are you. John Irving

This mannerism of what he'd seen of society struck Homer Wells quite forcefully; people, even nice people–because, surely, Wally was nice–would say a host of critical things about someone to whom they would then be perfectly pleasant. At. St. Cloud's, criticism was plainer–and harder, if not impossible, to conceal. John Irving

What is hardest to accept about the passage of time is that the people who once mattered the most to us wind up in parentheses. John Irving

When time passes, it's the people who knew you whom you want to see; they're the ones you can talk to. When enough time passes, what's it matter what they did to you? John Irving

I have stood aside to see the phantoms of those days go by me. They are gone, and I resume the journey of my story.’ (David Copperfield)“But all that night he lay awake because the phantoms of those days were not gone. Like the tiny, terrible holes in the prophylactics, the phantoms of those days were not easy to detect–and their meaning was unknown–but they were there. John Irving

When an orphan is depressed, " wrote Wilbur Larch, "he is attracted to telling lies. A lie is at least a vigorous enterprise, it keeps you on your toes by making you suddenly responsible for what happens because of it. You must be alert to lie, and stay alert to keep your lie a secret. Orphans are not the masters of their fates; they are the last to believe you if you tell them that other people are also not in charge of theirs. When you lie, it makes you feel in charge of your life. Telling lies is very seductive to orphans. I know, " Dr. Larch wrote. "I know because I tell them, too. I love to lie. When you lie, you feel as if you have cheated fate--your own, and everybody else's. John Irving

It's because even a good man can't always be right, that we need ... rules. John Irving

No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen... You shouldn't have a baby if there's no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move. John Irving

At times, he admitted, he had been very happy in the apple business. He knew what Larch would have told him: that his happiness was not the point, or that it wasn't as important as his usefulness. John Irving

And what were the rules at St. Cloud's? What were Larch's rules? Which rules did Dr. Larch observe, which ones did he break, or replace--and with what confidence? John Irving

Men who believe in good and evil, and who believe that good should win, should watch for those moments when it is possible to play God John Irving

Once the state starts providing, it feels free to hand out the rules, too! " Larch blurted hastily.."In a better world.." she began patiently." No, not in a better world! " he cried. "In this one--in this world. I take this world as a given. Talk to me about this world! ". ."Oh, I can't always be right, " Larch said tiredly." Yes, I know, " Nurse Caroline said sympathetically. "It's because even a good man can't always be right that we need a society, that we need certain rules--call them priorities, if you prefer, " she said..Always in the background of his mind, there was a newborn baby crying.. And they were not crying to be born, he knew; they were crying because they were born. John Irving