Quotes From "The Secret Life Of Bees" By Sue Monk Kidd

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

If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you. Sue Monk Kidd

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

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

Look, I know you meant well creating the world and all, but how could you let it get away from you like this? How come you couldn't stick with your original idea of paradise? People's lives were a mess. Sue Monk Kidd

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

Up until then I'd thought that white people and colored people getting along was the big aim, but after that I decided everybody being colorless together was a better plan. I thought of that policeman, Eddie Hazelwurst, saying I'd lowered myself to be in this house of colored women, and for the very life of me I couldn't understand how it had turned out this way, how colored women had become the lowest ones on the totem pole. You only had to look at them to see how special they were, like hidden royalty among us. Eddie Hazelwurst. What a shitbucket. Sue Monk Kidd

I didn't know what to think, but what I felt was magnetic and so big it ached like the moon had entered my chest and filled it up. The only think I could compare it to was the feeling I got one time when I walked from the peach stand and saw the sun spreading across the late afternoon, setting the top of the orchard on fire while darkness collected underneath. Silence had hovered over my head, beauty multiplying in the air, the trees so transparent I felt like I could see through t something pure inside them. My chest ached then, too, this very same way. . Sue Monk Kidd

You don't have to place your hand on Mary's heart to get strength and consolation and rescue, and all the other things we need to get through life. You can place it right here on your own heart. Your own heart. Sue Monk Kidd

Nothing is fair in this world. You might as well get that straight right now Sue Monk Kidd

I don't remember what they said, only the fury of their words, how the air turned raw and full of welts. Later it would remind me of birds trapped inside a closed room, flinging themselves against the windows and the walls, against each other. Sue Monk Kidd

Depressed people do things they wouldn't ordinarily do. Sue Monk Kidd

In the photograph by my bed my other is perpetually smiling on me. I guess I have forgiven us both, although sometimes in the night my dreams will take me back to the sadness, and I have to wake up and forgive us again. Sue Monk Kidd

August: You know, somethings don't matter that much...like the color of a house... But lifting a person's heart--now that matters. The whole problem with people--" Lily: They don't know what matters and what doesn't... August:... They know what matters, but they don't choose it... The hardest thing on earth is to choose what matters. Sue Monk Kidd

I'm tired of carrying around the weight of the world. I'm just going to lay it down now. It's my time to die, and it's your time to live. Don't mess it up. Sue Monk Kidd

Have you ever noticed the more you try not to think, the more elaborate your thinking episodes get? Sue Monk Kidd

I was wishing I had a story like that one to live inside me with so much loudness you could pick it up on a stethoscope. Sue Monk Kidd

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

As I squatted on the grass at the edge of the woods, the pee felt hot between my legs. I watched in puddle in the dirt, the smell of it rising into the night. There was no difference between my piss and June's. That's what i thought when I looked at the dark circle on the ground. Piss is Piss. Sue Monk Kidd

Up until then I'd thought that white people and colored people getting alone was the big aim, but after that I decided everybody being colorless together was a better plan. Sue Monk Kidd

It occurred to them for the first time in their lives that what's divine can come in dark skin. Sue Monk Kidd

Every living creature on the earth is special. You want to be the one that puts an end to one of them? Sue Monk Kidd

My mother's life was way too heavy for me. Sue Monk Kidd

Probably one or two moments in your whole life you will hear a dark whispering spirit, a voice coming from the center of things. It will have blades for lips and will not stop until it speaks the one secret thing at the heart of it all. Kneeling on the floor, unable to stop shuddering, I heard it plainly. It said, You are unlovable... Sue Monk Kidd

It takes so much energy to keep things at bay. Sue Monk Kidd

I worried so much about how I looked and whether I was doing things right, I felt half the time I was impersonating a girl instead of really being one. Sue Monk Kidd

I can't think of anything I'd rather have more than somebody lovin' me. Sue Monk Kidd

Look at her good, Lily, " she said, "'cause you're seeing the end of something."" I am?"" Yes, you are, because as long as people have been on this earth, the moon has been a mystery to us. Think about it. She is strong enough to pull the oceans, and when she dies away, she always comes back again. My mama used to tell me Our Lady lived on the moon and that I should dance when her face was bright and hibernate when it was dark." August stared at the sky a long moment and then, turning toward the house, said, "Now it won't ever be the same, not after they've landed up there and walked around on her. She'll be just one more science project. Sue Monk Kidd

Every person on the face of the earth makes mistakes, Lily. Every last one. We're all so human. Your mother made a terrible mistake, but she tried to fix it.'' Good night, ' I said, and rolled onto my side.' There is nothing perfect, ' August said from the doorway. 'There is only life. Sue Monk Kidd

The whole problem with people is they know what matters but they don't choose it. ~Secret Lives of Bees Sue Monk Kidd

You've been halfway living your life for too long. May was saying that 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

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