Menna Van Praag > Quotes

“It takes great courage and determination, to keep looking for light in all the darkness of life.”
― Menna van Praag, The House at the End of Hope Street

“When is cake ever for hunger? It's for flavor and, in this case, comfort.”
― Menna van Praag, The Dress Shop of Dreams

“One proton of faith, three electrons of humility, a neutron of compassion and a bond of honesty,” Robert said, winking at his daughter. “What’s that?” Cora frowned, confused. Maggie laughed. “That, according to your father, is the molecular structure of love.”
― Menna van Praag, The Dress Shop of Dreams

“If you get a chance you should marry an archaeologist. I don’t suppose there are too many to go around, but it’s the best sort of husband to have. The older a woman gets, the more he’s interested in her.”
― Menna van Praag, The House at the End of Hope Street

“It’s not just the books Alba craves, it’s standing inside a place that houses millions of them. Libraries are Alba’s churches, and the university library, containing one edition of every book ever published in England, is her cathedral.”
― Menna Van Praag , The House at the End of Hope Street

“In my experience even inanimate objects have a will of their own, and they won't be found until they want to be, until they're good and ready, she says.”
― Menna van Praag, The Dress Shop of Dreams

“I can say this: don’t give up. Not on love but, more important still, not on you. Never let yourself believe that you are unlovable or flawed in any way. You deserve to be loved. You deserve kind words and an unwavering eye.”
― Menna van Praag, The Dress Shop of Dreams

“I love chocolate cake for breakfast,” Peggy stalls, “it sets me up for the day. A little decadence is good for the soul.” She’s been eating more cake than usual, lately. Impending death does have compensations after all, then, if only chocolate-covered ones.”
― Menna van Praag, The House at the End of Hope Street

“The only way to stop hurting other people is to stop hurting yourself.”
― Menna van Praag, Men, Money and Chocolate

“Now you’re discovering the great secret of great writing: one line of true feeling is worth a thousand pages of clever thinking.”
― Menna van Praag, The House at the End of Hope Street

“They're sitting on the floor in A Stitch in Time, surrounded on all sides by dresses of every imaginable color. Cora realizes as she glances around, her gaze flitting quickly from one wall to the next, that Etta has arranged them like the seasons: sparkling whites, grays, blacks for winter; shimmering greens and blues for spring; pinks and purples for summer; reds, oranges and yellows for autumn. Together they are breathtaking, almost too bright if stared at for too long, like falling through a rainbow lit by the sun.”
― Menna van Praag, The Dress Shop of Dreams

“A vast skylight is cut into the ceiling, so she can fall asleep studying the stars. She doesn’t know their real names, preferring mysteries to facts,”
― Menna van Praag, The House at the End of Hope Street

“Listen to that voice that tells you not to trust someone, even though he's deliciously charming, remember Wickham and Willoughby and all those cads. And give another man a chance, even though he's not your usual type - remember Mr Knightly and Colonel Brandon and all those quiet heroes.”
― Menna van Praag, The Dress Shop of Dreams

“Scarlet often wondered about how it might feel to be loved for no special reason at all. Without trying to twist yourself into agreeable knots, without having to give what you might not want to give, safe in the knowledge that you were loved for just being your simple self.”
― Menna van Praag, The Sisters Grimm

“And some people don’t have what it takes to be happy. It’s not an easy thing, you know. It takes great courage and determination, to keep looking for light in all the darkness of life.”
― Menna van Praag, The House at the End of Hope Street

“It's a great shame, she thinks, that the heart cannot feel joy without also feeling pain, that it cannot know love without also knowing loss.”
― Menna van Praag, The Dress Shop of Dreams

“We all have to make choices,” Joan said. “Since we can’t have two lives, only one. But, most of those choices we make fresh every day, not just once. So, if you regret something, if you want to change your mind, you usually can.”
― Menna van Praag, The House at the End of Hope Street

“I don’t think tea will quite do, we need something a little more fortifying on such an auspicious occasion. Hot chocolate with fresh cream, that’s the thing.”
― Menna van Praag, The House at the End of Hope Street

“If two hearts truly love each other then they always will, even when they are apart. Unless they both let go. But if one holds on then it’s because the other one hasn’t yet let it go either.”
― Menna van Praag, The Dress Shop of Dreams

“You’re one of life’s magicians. You simply haven’t realized it yet.”
― Menna van Praag, The Dress Shop of Dreams

“That is the first, and most important, reason you don’t yet have the life you want,’ Rose explained. ‘Because truly, deep down, you don’t believe you deserve it. You think you’re not good enough.’ Maya swallowed back her tears. ‘Try saying it,’ Rose suggested. ‘Try saying that you deserve to have everything you want.’ Maya opened her mouth. Words formed and hovered on her tongue, waiting for her to speak. But she couldn’t.”
― Menna van Praag, Men, Money, and Chocolate

“She still hasn’t cried because to stay in shock feels safer, it keeps a distance between her and the thing she’s trying to pretend hasn’t happened.”
― Menna van Praag, The House at the End of Hope Street

“But do you really want to spend your life like this, as if you’re locked in a library?” “Of course.” Alba grins. “I can’t think of anything better.”
― Menna van Praag, The House at the End of Hope Street

“Then, at last, with the spark of life came the creation of humanity. Such was the explosive force of this creation that the light and its shadow were split apart and, once separated for long enough to forget it was ever whole, one half became the personification of good and the other half of evil.
When this happened, the forces of good and evil fought a battle to see who’d win influence over humanity. But since both sides were always perfectly matched, no victor ever emerged. Eventually, the powers that be invented the game of chess to decide the fate of humankind, since this method would be both less bloody and over far quicker. However, it didn’t help, since every game still ended in a stalemate.
Eventually it was decided, by an extremely lengthy and infinitely tedious board meeting, that the influence over humanity would be shared: the forces of good would influence their hearts; the forces of evil would influence their minds. Angels and demons were scattered throughout Earth and Everwhere to exert their influence by these means.
So humanity was left with a choice: to follow their hearts or their heads. But, once the agreement was made, it soon became clear that humans found it far easier to listen to their heads than their hearts, thus ensuring the demonic influence was far stronger than the angelic. It was widely believed, at least among the angels, that the demons had cheated. However, since they could never prove how, and since the terms of the deal, being sealed by both spirit and soul, were irreversible, there was nothing to be done.
Thus, the whole of humanity was subjected to a terrible fate, fighting to feel the influence of good, to know fulfilment, contentment, and joy, while all too often being drawn into fear, sorrow, and despair. Being cursed with perpetual free will, humans struggled on, often being thrown back and forth between one and the other a dozen times a day. Many descended into madness.”
― Menna van Praag, The Sisters Grimm

“I long for
a little life,
an everyday life,
a splash of sunlight
through a window
a smile from a stranger -
a heart to hold in mine.”
― Menna van Praag, The Dress Shop of Dreams

“I can’t trust anyone who won’t take real cream, or real sugar.”
― Menna van Praag, The House at the End of Hope Street

“It's always best to feel fulfilled first, before finding a man. Then you'll know the value of yourself, and you'll hold the key to your own happiness. So you won't turn into a vulnerable, needy, emotional mess the minute you fall in love.”
― Menna van Praag, Men, Money and Chocolate

“You can’t say you’ve failed to achieve something until you die,’ Bill said. ‘Or until you’ve tried absolutely everything; and you haven’t really tried everything until you’re dead. So you might have given up, but you certainly haven’t failed.”
― Menna van Praag, Men, Money, and Chocolate

“After he's gone Greer sits for a long time. She rests her head on her knees and weeps - not because she loved Blake and not because she's lost him. But because she did not care of herself. She knew Blake's nature the moment she met him, just as she knew the philandering fiancé. She knew them and she knew herself. Greer thinks of the story of the scorpion and the frog, and she knows she cannot blame these men for her messy life, they only did what she always knew they would do. No, this is not about crushed hopes and broken dreams. This is about trusting her own heart. Hope doesn't even enter into it.”
― Menna van Praag, The House at the End of Hope Street

“Too much analysis kills a thing. Art is created from passion and inspires passion. And passion is beyond reason. Don’t you think?”
― Menna van Praag, The Witches of Cambridge