Isabel Dalhousie Quotes

Out in Saxe-Coburg Street she stood still for a moment and looked at the gardens. He kissed me, she thought. He made the move; I didn't. The thought was an overwhelming one and invested the everyday world about her, the world of the square, of trees, of people walking by, with a curious glow, a chiaroscuro which made everything precious. It was the feeling, she imagined, that one had when one vouchsafed a vision. Everything is changed, becomes more blessed, making the humblest of surroundings a holy place. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

Look at those clouds," said Jamie, gazing up at the sky. "Look at them."
"Yes," said Isabel. "They're very beautiful, aren't they? Clouds are very beautiful and yet so often we fail to appreciate them properly. We should do that. We should look at them and think about how lucky we are to have them."
"Look at the shape of the clouds," she said. "What do you see in those beautiful clouds, Jamie?"
"I see you," he said. ~ Alexander McCall Smith

We turn our backs on Latin America, always comparing ourselves instead to Europe. ~ Isabel Allende

Write with honesty and don't worry about the feelings of others, because no matter what you say, they'll hate you anyway. ~ Isabel Allende

Growing up, I'll always remember knowing from movies and TV that there was a possibility that you wouldn't fall in love. I always thought, 'Oh my God, I hope I'm not that person.' ~ Isabel Gillies

They speak like melted butter and their children speak like footsteps on pavement ... ~ Isabel Wilkerson

Every life of a character is within a context. If I write detached from a social and political background, my story looks like a soap opera where everybody is indoors, not working and living off their emotions. ~ Isabel Allende

I'm a sucker for a sale. I don't understand why anyone wants to pay full price for anything because everything goes on sale. I love sale websites. In fact - this is almost kind of embarrassing - I'm coming from an Isabel Marant sample sale. ~ Busy Philipps

You want to talk? Fine. Talk. Tell me something you've never told anybody else.'
I thought for a moment. 'Turtles have the second-largest brains of any animal on the planet.'
It took Isabel only a second to process this. 'No, they don't.'
'I know that's why I've never told anybody that before. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

As my Popo used to say, life is a tapestry we weave day by day with threads of different colors, some heavy and dark, others thin and bright, all the threads having their uses. The stupid things I did are already in the tapestry, indelible, but I'm not going to be weighed down by them till I die. What's done is done; I have to look ahead. ~ Isabel Allende

When I'm scared - and I'm always scared when I have to face an audience, when I have to read a review, when I publish a book ... then, I think of my grandfather. My grandfather was this strong, tough Basque who would never bend ... What would he do? Well, he would go ahead, close his eyes, and drive forward. You do it and the spirit that is within you ... is there. ~ Isabel Allende

Barrabas came to us by the sea. ~ Isabel Allende

Leadership is obliged to justify itself daily. ~ Isabel Paterson

Write your dreams down, toss them into the sea, and make a wish, Isabel. Life is too short to live with regrets, own today as if it was your last. ~ A.M. Willard

The two women look at each other and in both faces there is a glimpse of the girls that they were. A little smile warms Margaret's face and Jacquetta's eyes are filled with love. It is as if the years are no more than the mists of Barnet or the snows at Towton: they are gone, it is hard to believe they were ever there. Margaret puts out her hand, not to touch her friend but to make a gesture, a secret shared gesture, and, as we watch, Jacquetta mirrors the movement. Eyes fixed on each other they both raise their index finger and trace a circle in the air – that's all they do. Then they smile to each other as if life itself is a joke, a jest that means nothing and a wise woman can laugh at it; then, without a word, Margaret passes silently into the darkness of the tower.

'What was that?' Isabel exclaims.

'It was the sign for the wheel of fortune,' I whisper. 'The wheel of fortune which put Margaret of Anjou on the throne of England, heiress to the kingdoms of Europe, and then threw her down to this. Jacquetta warned her of this long ago – they knew. The two of them knew long ago that fortune throws you up to greatness and down to disaster and all you can do is endure. ~ Philippa Gregory

If there were just one gift you could choose, but nothing barred, what would it be? We wish you then your own wish; you name it. Ours is liberty, now and forever. ~ Isabel Paterson

Virginians were nice, they confided to each other, if caught singly. Two Virginians, of course, talked horses. ~ Isabel Scott Rorick

I speak English and Spanish. I write in Spanish; my books are published in English. ~ Isabel Allende

Happiness is pure kitch; we come into the world to suffer and learn. ~ Isabel Allende

Problems arise for the introverts because they often do not look closely enough at the outer situation and, therefore, do not really see it. The extraverts often do not stop looking at the specific situation long enough to see the underlying idea. ~ Isabel Briggs Myers

We don't even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward. In times of tragedy, of war, of necessity, people do amazing things. The human capacity for survival and renewal is awesome. ~ Isabel Allende

I don't think I would be a writer if I had stayed in Chile. I would be trapped in the chores, in the family, in the person that people expected me to be. ~ Isabel Allende

I strike the ground with the soles of my feet and life rises up my legs, spreads up my skeleton, takes possession of me, drives away distress and sweetens my memory. The world trembles. ~ Isabel Allende

But even the most valiant and honorable men sometimes fail their women. ~ Isabel Allende

If we don't begin by imagining the perfect society, how shall we create one? ~ Isabel Allende

We all have an unsuspected reserve of strength inside that emerges when life puts us to the test. ~ Isabel Allende

Never mind gas masks and fallout shelters in the event of biological warfare. Many New Yorkers move from place to place equipped with the essentials of vermin assault weaponry: mouse traps, roach spray, and sticky tapes. In some neighborhoods, it's a must. ~ Isabel Lopez

One genius is about all a house will hold. ~ Isabel Paterson

No one to notice
No one to stare
No one to compromise with
No one to care ~ Isabel Aanya Leigh

For the first time in her life, Alba wanted to be beautiful. She regretted that the splendid women in her family had not bequeathed their attributes to her, that the only one who had, Rosa the Beautiful, had given her only the algae tones in her hair, which seemed more like a hairdresser's mistake then anything else. Miguel understood the source of her anxiety. He led her by the hand to the huge Venetian mirror that adorned one wall of their secret room, shook the dust from the cracked glass, and lit all the candles they had and arranged them around her. She stared at herself in the thousand pieces of the mirror. In the candlelight her skin was the unreal color of wax statues. Miguel began to caress her and she saw her face transformed in the kaleidoscope of the mirror, and she finally believed that she was the most beautiful woman in the universe because she was able to see herself with Miguel's eyes. ~ Isabel Allende

Freedom is dangerous. Possibly crawling on all fours might be safer than standing upright, but we like the view better up there. ~ Isabel Paterson

Erotica is using a feather; pornograpy is using the whole chicken. ~ Isabel Allende

Tell Larry I'm not going to the reception, and that he can't count on me for anything for the rest of my life. ~ Isabel Allende

I adore a moat,' said Isabel. 'Good-bye. ~ Henry James

I don't want to be looking inside my ego, my stuff, my achievements, my me, me, me, me, I hate that stuff. I just want to be out there eh to the last day of my life ah interested in the world, in causes, in helping other people. Um that doesn't mean that I don't have a spiritual practice, that I don't look at my own soul, that I don't prepare myself for the that transition that death is but I cannot sit in meditation to contemplate my navel for the rest of my life. That would be boring for me. ~ Isabel Allende

In South America euphemism appears to be the grisly preserve of violent power. 'Liberty' was the name of the biggest prison in Uruguay under the military dictatorship, while in Chile one of the concentration camps was called 'Dignity.' It was the self-styled 'Peace and Justice' paramilitary group in Chiapas [Mexico] that in 1997 shot 45 peasants in the back, nearly all of them women and children, as they prayed in a church. What have the souls of the south done over the past few decades to deserve quite so much liberty and dignity and peace and justice? ~ Isabel Fonseca

Trade and money, which go together in a stream of energy, inevitably wash away the enclosing walls of a society of status. ~ Isabel Paterson

Life's pain. You just have to get over as much of it as you can.
-Isabel Culpeper ~ Maggie Stiefvater

Love must be extraordinarily powerful for so many people to ignore dangerous, red, blaring warning signs - or not to be able to see them at all until it is too late. ~ Isabel Gillies

This is the same Lizzie Chao who I went to high school with," Hart said. "I believe so," Isabel said. "She's married," Hart said. "She's separated," Isabel said. "Which means she's married with an option to trade up," Catherine said. ~ John Scalzi