Top quotes by Mary Balogh

I do believe in fate, Anne-not the blind fate that gives one no freedom of choice, but a fate that sets down a pattern for each of our lives and gives us choices, numerous choices, by which to find that pattern and be happy. Votes: 14

I have written more than 100 novels and novellas since 1983 - I was first published in 1985. There was an overlap of three years with my teaching career, but finally I felt good enough about my writing career to quit teaching and write full time. Votes: 12

It's this idea that success changes you as a person... I've never seen my career that way. Votes: 10

But only a person in the depths of despair neglected to look beyond winter to the spring that inevitably followed, bringing back color and life and hope. Votes: 9

Perhaps she was just looking for love in the wrong places. In all the safe places. What if love was not safe at all? Votes: 9

I fancy the romantic image of myself being soothed and inspired by music and the sweet aroma and flickering lights of candles. Votes: 7

I don't know quite how a story develops in my head. It is a bit chaotic. If I am working on a series, one of the main characters at least is already in existence as well as some setting and minor characters. Finding the other main character can be a challenge. Sometimes this character already exists in a minor role in another book. Votes: 6

Since 1988, I have been writing steadily. I did decide a couple of years or so ago to scale back to writing one book a year - a sort of semi-retirement. But I never did have much success with that plan! Votes: 5

Suddenly, and for the first time, he was at the center of his own life, living it and loving it. Votes: 5

People do understand the language of the heart, you know, even if the head does not always comprehend it. Votes: 4

I am not sure what lonliness is," she said. "If it is not literally being solitary, is it the fear of solitude, of being alone with oneself? I feel no such fear. I like being alone." "What do you fear then?" he asked her. She glanced briefly at him and smiled, a fragile expression that spoke for itself even before she found words. "Never finding myself again.... Votes: 4

I prefer to believe the opposite - that there is always an indestructible beauty at the heart of darkness. Votes: 4

Every moment is a moment of decision, and every moment turns us inexorably in the direction of the rest of our lives. Votes: 4

I am a bit of a head-in-the-sand person as concerns things happening beyond the walls of my study. And I don't feel particularly guilty about that. I figure that my primary job is producing the very best stories I am capable of writing, and that is what I concentrate upon doing. That is within my control. Votes: 3

Life, she realized, so often became a determined, relentless avoidance of pain-of one's own, of other people's. But sometimes pain had to be acknowledged and even touched so that one could move into it and through it and past it. Or else be destroyed by it. Votes: 3

There is no happily-ever-after to run to. We have to work for happiness. Votes: 3

I have people introducing themselves to me: 'I am your publicist; what can I do for you?' But I have never learned how to use a publicist. Votes: 2

I have always been a spectator of life, you know, never a participant. Never. But now I am. Today I am, and I an awed and deliriously happy. This is the adventure I asked for, the adventure I am having I will be forever grateful to you. Votes: 2

It was so much more comfortable to be able to divide people into heroes and villains and expect them to play their allotted part. Votes: 2

But a mother-son relationship is not a coequal one, is it? He is lonely with only you just as you are lonely with only him. Votes: 2

And he knew at that moment that love world never die, that it would never fade away altogether. The time might come when he would meet and marry someone else. He might even be reasonably happy. But there would always be a deep precious place in his heart that belonged to his first real love. Votes: 2

She was not sorry. And if it was the wine telling her that, then she would tell the wine the same thing tomorrow. She was not sorry. Votes: 2

Perhaps today was all that mattered. Perhaps today was all anyone could expect. Perhaps tomorrow was always an illusion that never came. Votes: 2

Have you noticed," she asked him, "how we live much of our lives in the past and most of the rest of it in the future? Have you noticed how often the present moment slips by quiet unnoticed? Votes: 2

Future indifferences is no consolation for present pain. Votes: 2

I know it is something of a cliche to say that love makes all things possible, but I believe it does. It is not a magic wand that can be waved over life to make it all sweet and lovely and trouble free, but it can give the energy to fight the odds and win. Votes: 1

You are not by any manner of means the sort of woman I am in search of as a wife, and I am in a totally different universe from the husband you hope to find. But I feel a powerful urge to kiss you, for all that. Votes: 1

It was the challenge of life too, was it not? People could never be fully understood. They were ever changing, different people at different times and under different circumstances and influences. And always growing, always creating themselves anew.How impossible it was to know another human being.How impossible to know even oneself." Votes: 1

I am afraid that it will all be ruined. It is like stepping out into the darkness when one has a world of light and warmth behind one. Votes: 1

Was he a pleasant man hiding behind a mask of seeming carelessness or an unpleasant man hiding behind a mask of charm & smiles? Or like most humans, was he a dizzying mix of contradictory charactersticks? Votes: 1

Fear is a powerful beast, if it is allowed the mastery. Votes: 0

And she was terribly aware that she was alive. Not just living and breathing, but ...alive. Votes: 0

After a few awkward moments, Lizzy joined them and they skipped along the avenue, the three of them, laughing and whooping and altogether making an undignified spectacle of themselves. Votes: 0

But if one had everything one could ever need or want, what was left to dream of? Votes: 0

My happiness has to come from within myself or it is too fragile a thing to be of any use to me and too much of a burden to benefit any of my loved ones. Votes: 0

Why do I want to run from happiness~? Votes: 0

He wished someone in the course of history had thought of striking that word and all its derivatives from the English Language - happy, happier, happiest, happiness. What the devil did the words really mean anyway? Why not just the word pleasure, which was far more... well, pleasant. Votes: 0

You really love me?" she asked wistfully."The devil!" he exclaimed, looking over his shoulder. "Did I forget to say it? The thing I came to say~? Votes: 0

I do what I love and what I always dreamed of doing for a living. I write love stories, and I have always had a publisher willing to publish them. I have a sizable and loyal audience. I have made best-seller lists and won awards. What more could anyone ask for? Votes: 0

I think I wrote 'The Trysting Place' in about three weeks. But it was inexperience that made me have to do that. I didn't feel good about the book all the time I was writing it. It felt a bit like wading through molasses. Votes: 0

I have a British voice and a rather formal one at that, having been brought up in post-WWII Britain. My voice is perfectly suited to the sort of book I write, I think. It would not fit a contemporary, besides which I do not know enough about the contemporary world to write convincingly or comfortably about it! Votes: 0

After you married, Crispin, she said, my heart was broken. I will not deny it. But I did not slip into a sort of suspended life that would be forever gray and meaningless if you did not somehow come back to me. I put back the pieces of my heart and kept on living. I am not the woman I was when I was in love with you and expecting to marry you. I am not the woman I was when I heard that you were married. I am the woman I have become in the five years since then, and she is a totally different person. I like her. I wish to continue living her life. Votes: 0

All is artifice in my world, Constantine. Even me. Especially me. He taught me to be a duchess, to be an impregnable fortress, to be the guardian of my own heart, But he admitted that he could not teach me how or when to allow the fortress to be breached or my heart to be unlocked. It would simply happen, he said. he promised it would, in fact. But how is love to find me, even assuming it is looking? Votes: 0

Always guarding one's real, precious self in a cocoon of tranquility within a thousand masks. Life itself had become a secret affair. Votes: 0

And of course the word love has many shades of meaning, as do many, many of the words in our living, breathing language Votes: 0

And yet day and night meet fleetingly at twilight and dawn," he said, lowering his voice again and narrowing his eyes and moving his head a quarter of an inch closer to hers. "And their merging sometimes affords the beholder the most enchanted moments of all the twenty four hours. A sunrise or sunset can be ablaze with brilliance and arouse all the passion, all the yearning, in the soul of the beholder. Votes: 0

Black is the absence of all color. White is the presence of all colors. I suppose life must be one or the other. On the whole, though, I think I would prefer color to its absence. But then black does add depth and texture to color. Perhaps certain shades of gray are necessary to a complete palette. Even unrelieved black. Ah, a deep philosophical question. Is black necessary to life, even a happy life? Could we ever be happy if we did not at least occasionally experience misery? Votes: 0

But parents, she supposed, were not the pinnacle of perfection their children thought or expected them to be. They were humans who usually did the best they could but often made the wrong choices. Votes: 0

But the things is, you see, that two people can never actually become one no matter how close they are. And it would not be desirable even if it were possible. What would happen when one of them died? It would leave the other as a half a person, and that would be a dreadful thing. We must each be a whole person and therefore we each need some privacy to be alone with ourselves and our own feelings. Votes: 0

Did everyone make the most ghastly blunders at regularly intervals through their life and live to regret them ever afterward? Was everyone's life filled with confusing and contradictory mix of guilt and innocence, hatred and love, concern and unconcern, and any number of other pairings of polar opposites? Or were most people one thing or the other - good or bad, cheerful or crotchety, generous or miserly, and so on. Votes: 0

Did she ever feel nostalgia for any of her girlhood dreams? But life was made up of a succession of dreams, some few to be realized, most to be set aside as time went on, one or two to persist for a lifetime. It was knowing when to abandon a dream, perhaps, that mattered and distinguished the successful people in life from the sad, embittered persons who never moved on from the first of life's great disappointments. Or from the airy dreamers who never really lived life at all. Votes: 0

Even friends need private spaces, if only within the depths of their own souls, where no one else is allowed to intrude. Votes: 0

Everyone was a rose but even more complex than a mere flower. Everyone was made up of infinitely layered petals. And everyone had something indescribably precious at the heart of their being. No one was shallow. Not really. Votes: 0

He gazed up at the blue sky and knew that heaven"”at least in this life"”was neither a time nor a place to be grasped and made into a possession. It came in fleeting moments and then went away again to leave one nostalgic and yearning and on the verge of tears. Very much on the verge of tears. And very frightened. Votes: 0

I am free, you see," she said, "to love or to withhold love. Love and dependence need no longer be the same thing to me. I am free to love. that is why I love you and it is the way I love you. If you have come here, Kit, because you think you owe me something, because you believe I might crumble without your protection, then go away again with my blessing and find happiness with someone else." "I love you," he said again. Votes: 0

I can be hurt, she said, only by people I respect. Votes: 0

I do beg you to have some regard for my pride. A million years? I assure you I would stop asking after the first thousand. Votes: 0

I do not admire greatness that has no substance. Votes: 0

I have read somewhere that we often spend a lifetime searching for what we already have. Votes: 0

I wish," he said, "I had known at eighteen what I know now - that there are some things on which one does not compromise. Votes: 0

I would be consumed by you,' she said, and blinked her eyes furiously when she felt them fill with tears. 'You would sap all the energy and all the joy from me. You would put out all the fire of my vitality.' 'Give me a chance to fan the flames of that fire,' he said, 'and to nurture your joy. Votes: 0

If you have always suspected your sister of an inclination to madness, it will be my pleasure to confirm your worst fears. Votes: 0

I'm terrified that I will never be able to put him from my mind. I don't love him but I'm afraid that he will make it impossible for me ever to love anyone else. Votes: 0

It was strange how the heart clung to hope even when there was no reasonable basis for it, Morgan found. And how life went on. Votes: 0

Love did not have to make sense. It did not have to be worthy. It did not have to be earned. It did not have to woo. It just simply was. Votes: 0

Love does not last forever, then?" "He asked me the same thing this morning," she said. "No, it does not - not love that has been betrayed. One realizes that one has loved a mirage, someone who never really existed. Not that love dies immediately or soon, even then. But it does die and cannot be revived. Votes: 0

Love, I have discovered, does not judge. It just is. Votes: 0

Nothing is permanently perfect. But there are perfect moments and the will to choose what will bring about more perfect moments. Votes: 0

Now I must live with the consequences of the choice I made. And I will not call it the wrong choice. That would be foolish and pointless. That choice led me to everything that has happened since, including this very moment, and the choices I make today or tomorrow or next week will lead me to the next and next present moments in my life. It is all a journey, Miss Jewell. I have come to understand that that is what life is all about-a journey and the courage and energy always to take the next step and the next without judgement about what was right and what was wrong. Votes: 0

Occasionally we all do wrong things from right motives. Only time can prove us right or wrong. The past is the past. Nothing can change it now, and who is to say that it was all wrong, anyway? Votes: 0

One day you will learn that love does not always betray you. Votes: 0

Sometimes children do not realize by how fragile a thread their security hangs. Perhaps it is as well they do not - most of them grow up before the thread can be broken. Votes: 0

Sometimes even the imagination lets one down. Votes: 0

Sometimes it just seems that love is not enough, does it? Votes: 0

Sometimes now was enough. Sometimes it was everything. Votes: 0

Stop being so fruitlessly busy and dream. Use your imagination. Reach out into the unknown and dream of how you can enlarge your experience and improve your mind and your soul and your world. Votes: 0

Tears never were worth the effort of crying them. Votes: 0

The bad part is life continues. The good part is that the pain goes away. Votes: 0

The people we love are usually stronger than we give them credit for. It is the nature of love, perhaps, to want to shoulder all the pain rather than see the loved one suffer. But sometimes pain is better than emptiness. I have been so empty Kit. All my life. So full of emptiness. That is strange paradox is nit not - full of emptiness? Votes: 0

The suffering of a loved one was in many ways worse than one's one suffering because it left one feeling so very helpless. Votes: 0

The worst thing about loneliness is that it brings one face to face with oneself. Votes: 0

There had to be a reason why they were not going to marry. They had both been so adamant about it. What the devil was the reason? Votes: 0

There is nothing worse, is there," she said, "than a past that has never been fully dealt with. One can convince oneself, that it is all safely in the past and forgotten about, but the very fact that we can tell ourselves that it is forgotten proves that it is not. Votes: 0

There is something infinitely better than happily-ever-after. There is happiness. Happiness is a living, dynamic thing, Eve, and has to be worked on every moment for the rest of our lives. It is a far more exciting prospect than that silly static idea of a happily-ever-after. Would you not agree?" - Aidan Bedwyn Votes: 0

Was memory always as much of a burden as it could sometimes be a blessing. Votes: 0

Why did people assume that the beautiful among them needed nothing but their beauty to bring them happiness? That behind the beauty there was nothing but an empty shell, insensitive shell? Votes: 0

Why do I want to run from happiness? Votes: 0

Your sense of guilt will linger. It will always be part of you. but sharing it, allowing people to love you anyway, will do you the world of good. Secrets need an outlet if they are not to fester and become an unbearable burden. Votes: 0

A sunrise or sunset can be ablaze with brilliance and arouse all the passion, all the yearning, in the soul of the beholder. Votes: 0

This time her heart would not break, even though it would hurt and hurt for a long time to come. Perhaps for the rest of her life. But it would not break. She had the strength to go on alone. Votes: 0

The real meaning of things lies deep down and the real meaning of things is always beautiful because it is simply love. Votes: 0