Mary Alice Monroe > Quotes

“Friends come and go. But through the thick and thin, the good and bad, you can only ever count on your family. That's the heart of it. Family.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Summer Girls

“Age is real life is short. It's foolhardy to deny it. We grow up, our bodies grow frail, death is coming. There's so much I want to do!
There's a whole world out there I havent seen, ppl I havent met and who havent know me.
God, there 're a million books I want to read.
I dont want to sleep... I want to be awake.
This is my life - I want to live it”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“Privacy is something that we maintain for the good of ourselves and others. Secrecy we keep to separate ourselves from others, even those we love.”
― Mary Alice Monroe

“She thought how sharp words could sting when they held the truth.”
― mary alice monroe, The Butterfly's Daughter

“I know I can't change the past. Not my mistakes or the mistakes of others. But I can begin by changing me.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Summer Girls

“See how people smile when they see a butterfly? They can't help themselves. Butterflies are joy with wings.”
― Mary Alice Monroe

“All stories come to an end. That moment when we sigh and close the book, perhaps sit back in our chair and rest our palm over the cover, is met with quixotic emotions. On the one hand, we’re satisfied if the author successfully tied up loose ends, turned a memorable phrase and rewarded the hero’s moral choice with his heart’s desire. Yet we’re also saddened that the adventure is over. Sometimes when we see that we only have a few pages left we slow down, savoring each word, staving off the”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“Oh, if only I were young again, I would travel! There's so much of the world I would like to have seen. But I'm too old for that now and too ill to manage the trip. I don't care much for clothes. I'm giving away all my jewelry. At this point in my life, I see all possessions as just more stuff, , as Cara called it. Meaningless! Worse than meaningless. They are distractions.”
― Mary Alice Monroe

“Mom’s are our best cheerleaders. No one else ever cares quite the same. Who else is going to be as angry at you when you do something wrong, or be as proud of you when you do something right?”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“A woman does not need to live among many people to be content. She needs but one true companion, one soul mate with whom to share this long journey we call life.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, Time Is a River

“The tree had become our unspoken symbol of that important Christmas when we had all dug deep and fought for one another--for our survival. For our family. For our happiness. And in the process, discovering the true meaning of Christmas.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, A Lowcountry Christmas

“I can’t change the past. I can’t take the hurt back. But I can soften it if I can just learn how to accept it.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Four Seasons

“Sometimes people get angry and do things they shouldn't. Things they regret.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Summer Girls

“The secret to happiness is to embrace the humility to accept what comes and the courage to continue on your life's path with an open heart.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Summer's End

“Life is more about the journey than the destination”
― Mary Alice Monroe

“Intuition guides us and the wise person listens.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, Beach House Reunion

“My story will change, and so will yours. We’ll just go on changing, making a new set of choices, then living them out. That’s what life is anyway, just a long string of choices.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“Friendships were easy when life was going smoothly. What was hard was to be there for your friend when life got rough and the friendship was neither easy nor fun. The challenge was to forgive the friend when she failed.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“inevitable. The characters we’ve come to know and love are no longer part of our lives. This can leave us with a certain longing. Perhaps we’ll open the book again and skim through it, searching out favorite passages to kindle again those powerful emotions. But the passion is never stirred quite as strong the second time around. So it is with life. We rush through the days that we’re given, eager to engage in the conflicts and passions, to push through and conquer and see how it all ends. When suddenly the end is in sight, we’re surprised. We stall, frantically savoring each moment. The sun shines brighter, the smiles appear more tender and we listen for words of love with an urgency that would be poignant if it were”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“Treat your family like guests and your guests like family.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“The secret to happiness is to embrace the humility to accept what comes and the courage to continue on your life’s path with an open heart.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Summer's End

“This dog had shown more courage than I. This great, powerful, beautiful dog was willing to take a chance on me - a broken, depressed, lonely Marine.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, A Lowcountry Christmas

“Basically it means there is no one correct view of the universe. We each see things from our own frame of reference.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Four Seasons

“The secret to survival was in seeing the world through the eyes—and heart—of a child. That was Merry’s lesson to her sisters. To treasure life, and most of all, to love. Simply, unconditionally and with joyful abandon. To love without demanding or expecting anything in return.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Four Seasons

“Whatever it was inside of me, whatever kernel deep inside that enabled me to believe in fairies, in Peter, in the Neverland itself, this was my source of strength. No one could ever take that away from me. As long as I believed, no matter where I was or with whom, I’d always belong. Because I was at home in my own heart.” Wendy”
― Mary Alice Monroe, Second Star to the Right

“Dawn tore at the seam of night, pulling the blackness back a little farther with each passing minute.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Butterfly's Daughter

“Research has found perceiving nature’s beauty to be a significant predictor of life satisfaction. In other words, the more one perceived nature’s beauty, the more one reported life satisfaction.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, On Ocean Boulevard

“A woman’s life has so many demands because she is the axis around which so many little planets spin.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Beach House

“To her mind, when you were drowning and a rope was thrown your way, you didn't waste time thinking about what to do. You just grabbed it, then kicked and swam like the devil to safety.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Summer Girls

“How ironic she thought, to store the past but never tend to it. ~ Mary June”
― Mary Alice Monroe, Sweetgrass