Jessa Maxwell > Quotes

“Baking, very much like life, is about formulating the best possible outcome with the variables you are given.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“Back when I was young, I remember thinking older people were practically a different species. Now I realize we are always the same inside, it’s just the packaging that changes.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“They always tell you that you have to be enough for yourself before you can heal, and I respectfully disagree. I, by myself, was not enough. I think you need others to even be able to see yourself fully. The best way to find the value in yourself is by being good to someone else. There, you find your purpose, and that is the sweetest thing I have ever tasted.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“What is baking, I remind myself, other than a way to show others you care about them.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“Sometimes we must do what we can to keep our mistakes a secret, don't we?”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“We can never get back time—it’s one of life’s biggest tragedies but also one of its greatest motivators. If things were not finite, there would be no need to ever evaluate what is most important to us.”
― Jessa Maxwell, I Need You to Read This

“I love these Victorian houses - with all their quirks they feel almost human to me, like they could be old friends. More than anything I relish learning all their stories, uncovering their pasts.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“The best way to find the value in yourself is by being good to someone else. There, you find your purpose,”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“fear. If you are not mindful, you can spend a whole lifetime weighing your options.”
― Jessa Maxwell, I Need You to Read This

“It’s been a long time since she’s had this kind of feeling about a person, the kind of comfortable chemistry where just watching them do something mundane is attractive.”
― Jessa Maxwell, I Need You to Read This

“Bake Week is a special kind of entertainment. It’s not just a show for bakers, though obviously that is the main activity. It is something else too, an escape of sorts, a glimpse into a simpler way of being where people are kind to one another and sugar isn’t thought of as junk food, but as something special to be shared and cherished. Where you can say “I love you” with a slice of cake.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“We can never get back time—it’s one of life’s biggest tragedies but also one of its greatest motivators. If things were not finite, there would be no need to ever evaluate what is most important to us. You thought you were being true to yourself by keeping your options open, but all that time you were living in fear. If you are not mindful, you can spend a whole lifetime weighing your options. Commitment to anything, let alone another person, takes bravery.”
― Jessa Maxwell, I Need You to Read This

“You have to allow yourself to be vulnerable if you want to receive anything good this world has to offer.”
― Jessa Maxwell, I Need You to Read This

“Walking might not be as good as psychotherapy, but it is the only way to feel like she is still moving forward in her life, even if she isn’t.”
― Jessa Maxwell, I Need You to Read This

“Just like Dorothy and her ruby slippers, you will realize that everything you need has been inside you all along.”
― Jessa Maxwell, I Need You to Read This

“There is a kind of bravery that you must possess to come to this city with nothing and no one, a certain amount of having nothing to lose.”
― Jessa Maxwell, I Need You to Read This

“how do we ever know if what we are doing is the right thing? If we are helping things or just making a big mess?”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“They are all unique and lovingly constructed. There's one for a chocolate ganache tart striped with hazelnut and praline, a honey cake with orange marmalade filling, coconut cream-filled doughnuts with meringues in the center.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“The darkness makes me feel like I am alone floating in space, like my body doesn’t even exist anymore. Like I am dead.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“I am struck again by how fragile she seems, how vulnerable. There are so many people in this world in desperate need of a mother.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“Oh, Lottie, how do we ever know if what we are doing is the right thing? If we are helping things or just making a big mess?” I ponder this. “I guess we don’t. We have to trust that if we are going the wrong way, something deep inside us will tell us. We have to train ourselves to listen for that inner voice shouting for us to turn around.” Stella”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“She smelled of the outdoors, of crisp leaves and woodsmoke. Pale moonlight slanted in through the window, hitting her side where she sat on my bed. Her eyes sparkled.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“I wonder what she was doing walking down the hallway last night like some sort of weird Victorian ghost.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“My life has always been a series of goals. I may grow bored with them all eventually, but the beginning is always sustaining enough to keep me going, keep me moving. This is all just something to do to fill in the time and to keep the feeling at bay. But I worry it is returning anyway, seeping through the cracks. I fear the gnawing nothingness that will overtake me if I let it.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“Baking is like playing jazz—once you have the basics down, sometimes it's better to improvise.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“You must know how to lose, and to learn when you lose, he’d always told her. It’s the only way you can come back”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“Recipes are like architecture; a combination of tested methods with personal elements is what makes a bake memorable.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“There are certain people who appreciate your vulnerability and certain people who will try to use it against you. But they can’t if you don’t let them.”
― Jessa Maxwell, I Need You to Read This

“Back when I was young, I remember thinking older people were practically a different species. Now I realize we are always the same inside, it's just the packaging that changes.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon

“dinner.”
― Jessa Maxwell, The Golden Spoon