Stephanie Dray Quotes

Because the people we love are not entirely knowable. Even to themselves. But we love them anyway.

The only other choice is to live without love, alone. ~ Stephanie Dray

It pains me to be an embarrassment to you, but I don't know how to remedy my flaws. All I know is that whenever I feel strongly compelled to act, a doubt always arises. And whereas the voice of reason is low and persuasive, passion is loud and imperious. ~ Stephanie Dray

Need me. Need me the way a woman is meant to need her husband. ~ Stephanie Dray

For I find inside myself love where I'd not expected it to be. Both for a flawed nation and a flawed man. *Love*. A thing so powerful it can overcome the divide of time and death. It's still there inside me, like an eternal flame, though the light it casts is different now. ~ Stephanie Dray

Selene's life is a lesson to us that the trajectory of women's equality hasn't always been a forward march. In some ways the ancients were more advanced than we are today; there have been setbacks before and may be more in the future. ~ Stephanie Dray

When the heart finds its one true desire, any separation and delay is unbearable. ~ Stephanie Dray

From tattered flags and uniforms to friendships strained to the brink, the women of my country had always been the menders to all the things torn asunder. But now we'd do more than patch with needle and thread. We'd have to weave together a whole tapestry of American life with nothing but our own hands, our own crops, and our own ingenuity. And I would prove myself able to the task. There ~ Stephanie Dray

Tell your papa I'll call upon him soon. Mr. Jefferson is still very much needed here in Paris, where his revolution remains undone. In my study, I have a copy of his Declaration of Independence in half a frame. The other half of the frame is empty. One day, with his help, it will house a Declaration of French Rights and they'll stand side by side, like proud brothers. Like France and America. Like your father and me." Ordinarily, ~ Stephanie Dray

I'll tell you a secret about being happy, Tom. Sometimes you just have to pretend at it until it becomes real. ~ Stephanie Dray

But I meant every word. I'd done my daughters no favors hiding behind feminine virtues, allowing men to do as they pleased with little more than sarcasm and secrecy for protest. Seeing my son half-dead, something changed in me - my willingness to obey, my willingness to accept, to let the men handle it was gone. When ~ Stephanie Dray

They'll try to make you forget who you are or try to make you ashamed. But you mustn't forget and you mustn't be ashamed. ~ Stephanie Dray

A marriage is like a union of states, requiring countless dinner table bargains to hold it together. There may be irreconcilable differences brewing below the surface that can come to open rupture. And there is, in a marriage, as in a nation, a certain amount of storytelling we do to make it understood. Even if those stories we tell to make our marriage, or country, work don't paint the whole picture, they're still true. But to leave Alexander Hamilton out of the painting entirely is a lie. ~ Stephanie Dray

He's the beating pulse of every cause dear to me. ~ Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie

You are the magic in my soul. You are as constant in my heart as the moon in the night. You are my other half and I'll always seek you out somehow, even though it puts you in danger, and that is my shame. ~ Stephanie Dray

But women have to give hard thought to the men we'll wind up with. Make a mistake and get a drunk, a spendthrift, a cruel man. A man who won't keep his word. ... In marriage, man and woman become one, and that one is the husband. ~ Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie

The heart swellings convince me of the folly of those who dare to think that any new ties can weaken the first and best of nature. ~ Stephanie Dray

We laughed, thinking it quite a wonderful thing to be envied. In those heady, happy days, we'd not learned yet that envy is a poison to which none are immune... ~ Stephanie Dray

Kings and queens cry with family. Hide your grief from subjects and strangers. ~ Stephanie Dray

Am I fated to have the men I've loved torment me in my weakest moments? ~ Stephanie Dray

For the first time in my life, I understood that a lie could protect those I loved. My ~ Stephanie Dray

My father had once said on the eve of the Constitutional Convention, with respect to the dangers of a failed rebellion in Massachusetts, that the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Only, here and now [in 1799], with so much turmoil in our young nations, I couldnt' help but wonder who was who. ~ Stephanie Dray And Laura Kamoie

No one wanted to serve anymore. Not when, under our new government, any man, whether a gentleman or a scoundrel, could say whatever he pleased and print whatever libels he wished without consequence. And the ignorant populists, spewing tobacco juice as they ranted, took full advantage. As if the notion that all men were created equal somehow meant that one need not aspire to knowledge and ability - all distinctions of class, breeding, or merit discarded, all notions of civility deserted. ~ Stephanie Dray

Like the sun and the moon, we were always meant to be in the same sky. ~ Stephanie Dray

I never was a beauty. It was only that, until a few days ago, Alexander had made me feel like one. ~ Stephanie Dray

Maybe liberty must always be fought for. And you have kept fighting when others laid down their swords in defeat, or exhaustion, or corruption. ~ Stephanie Dray

They'd murdered my husband. They'd taken him from me. But I still had his words, and they were my solace. Hamilton could still speak to me through those pages. His love letters. His Ideas. His essays. Thousands of pages.
They could kill him, but they couldn't silence him. Not if his story was told. Not if his work was preserved. And I resolved to collect the pieces of the legacy Alexander left behind. ~ Stephanie Dray

I knew that a man was not only himself but also who he wished to be. ~ Stephanie Dray

Because I sensed in him the magic of a poet, a storyteller who can bind you with tales of things that had never been and could never be. And I felt myself so bound. Pulled under. At a loss for breath in his presence, just as I once was in a river, clinging to life. ~ Stephanie Dray

This was, I thought, why love was so dangerous. I searched for the right words, when a certain warmth stole over me at the realization that her happiness was more important than fear. Even if she left me ... ~ Stephanie Dray

I was someone before I met Alexander Hamilton.
Not someone famous or important or with a learned philosophical understanding of all that was at stake in our revolution. Not a warrior or a philosopher or statesman.
But I was a patriot.
I was no unformed skein of wool for Hamilton to weave together into any tapestry he wished. That's important for me to remember now, when every thread of my life has become tangled with everything he was. Important, I think, in sorting out what can be forgiven, to remember my own experiences - the ones filled with my own yearnings that had nothing to do with him.
I was, long before he came into my life, a young woman struggling to understand her place in a changing world. And torn, even then, between loyalty, duty, and honor in the face of betrayal. ~ Stephanie Dray

I had come to Rome in chains, but I would leave Rome a queen. ~ Stephanie Dray

When and where you are Gaius, I then and there am Gaia." The words make him smile, and he presses a soft kiss to my cheek. "When and where you are Gaia, I then and there am Gaius. ~ Stephanie Dray

I was startled by his touch. I hadn't realized he was so close to me, because I seemed so far from myself. ~ Stephanie Dray

But I think it better, in times like these, for us to acknowledge that marriage is a choice, one made, every day, anew. ~ Stephanie Dray

Dread skittered down my spine and brushed away the last tendrils of sleep. Pushing back the bed linens, I disentangled myself from Polly. Then I put my bare feet on the wooden floorboards and felt the early autumn chill on my legs. I glided soundlessly down the stairs, drawn inexorably to Papa's chamber, the only room where the candles still burned bright. I ~ Stephanie Dray

What a high-minded thing revolution had seemed when it started; but now I wondered if, in trying to bring about liberty, we'd instead opened the gates of endless war, bloodshed, and immorality. ~ Stephanie Dray

And when Venutius was not busy fighting, he was content to spend his days hammering things near a forge and his evenings hammering, well ... as I said, we got on well. ~ Stephanie Dray

Though the natural weakness of her body hinders her from doing what men can perform, she has a mind as valiant and as active for the good of her country as the best of us. - Plutarch ~ Stephanie Dray

Life is a bargain between bitter and sweet. Because there is a surfeit of bitter, we must savor the rare sweet. ~ Stephanie Dray

It's midnight, it's sweltering, and I might be high on Vicodin, but that guy - that guy right over there - that's him.
The him. ~ Stephanie Perkins

We straighten , bu our snickering is barely contained as we attempt to focus our attention on a picture of a discarded Coke can. "This guy's lady love is kind of a slob, don't you think?" he whispers.
I cover my mouth with my hands again.
"A reaaaaaaaal litterbug."
"Stop it," I hiss. My eyes are watering. "Ohmygod look at this one! How did he get her toenail clippings?"
"If you were my girl," he whispers, "I'd take creepy pictures of your trash when I knew you weren't looking."
"If you were my girl," I whisper back," I"d put the creepy pictures in a foreign museum so you wouldn't know that I take creepy pictures. ~ Stephanie Perkins

The first time you find yourself having a conversation about moss stitch with a group of people who aren't desperately trying to escape you ... it's like coming home. ~ Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Every story has four parts - the beginning, the middle, the almost ending, and the true ending. ~ Stephanie Garber

She remembered thinking falling for him would be like falling in love with darkness, but now she imagined he was more like a starry night: the constellations were always there, constant, magnificent guides against the ever-present black. ~ Stephanie Garber

Even stranger, though, was how, at this very moment, this car with its echoes of death and decisions and life courses forever altered was the one place where Emerson had never felt so vividly alive. ~ Stephanie Kuehn

Get out of your head. If you don't you'll always be disappointed. Pay attention. ~ Stephanie Danler

You don't knit because you are patient. You are patient because you knit. ~ Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

Do you like it? she asks. Universal bitch speak for I think it's hideous. ~ Stephanie Perkins

A saccharine, sentimental drip ran down my throat, and I was blinded by how stupid I had been not to see that everything was absolutely, one hundred percent going to be okay. ~ Stephanie Danler

What's been building since the 1980's is a new kind of social Darwinism that blames poverty and crime and the crisis of our youth on a breakdown of the family. That's what will last after this flurry on family values. ~ Stephanie Coontz

May the trees continue to thrive and flourish on this earth, filling our hearts with joy and inspiration. ~ Stephanie Kaza

Jude used to try to make me laugh, and when I'd crack a smile he'd keep the joke going , like breath on an ember, making it grow into a fit of giggles that'd echo around the whole forest and make all the birds in the trees quiet. ~ Stephanie Oakes

It's the best thing ever - I love being a mom. This is my only child. My career was a priority earlier in my life, but now my son is definitely the priority. ~ Stephanie Mills

She told everything as quickly as she could, stringing sentences together the way she had when she was a little girl. By the end of the tale,she found herself defending her mother,angry at the world that made it necessary for her to explain.Impulsively, she grabbed a curry comb and began to brush Red Star's coat vigorously.She brushed for a long time,and tears began to blur her vision.She tried to resign herself to what seemed to be happening.Then a hand covered hers and squeezed affectionately. Mac took the curry comb away,and bent to kiss the back of her hand.
"So,Miss King,will you do me the honor of accompanying me to the social next Friday evening at the Congregational Church?"
Miss King embarrassed herself by saying yes! so loudly that the dozing horse in the stall next to Red Star jumped and kicked the side of his stall in fright.The two young people laughed, and MacKenzie lifted LisBeth into the air and swung her around in his arms.
Sick with apprehension,Jesse had been unable to remain alone for long.She returned to the kitchen to help Augustus with meal preparations, praying earnestly for LisBeth and MacKenzie while she worked.When the two young people burst through the kitchen door together,their happy smiles told the older women all they needed to know.
LisBeth was sobered when she saw her Mother. "Mother,I..."
Jesse held up a hand to stop her. "It's all right,LisBeth. I'm glad everything turned out.I've been praying for you both."
"M ~ Stephanie Grace Whitson

But Matt's the only guy I've ever gone out with,and he barely counts.I once told him I'd dated this guy named Stuart Thistleback at summer camp. Stuart Thistleback had auburn hair and played the stand-up bass, and we were totally in love,but he lived in Chattanooga and we didn't have our driver's licenses yet.
Matt knew I made it up,but he was too nice to say so. ~ Stephanie Perkins

But for all its sparkle, once Tella looked closer she thought it seemed more like glitter pretending to be stardust. ~ Stephanie Garber

I mean, teenage girls and their fathers don't have a lot in common, but when you add something like comedy into the mix, it just opens up all sorts of doors for them to bond. ~ Stephanie Beatriz

I remember admiring my aunt's - my mom's sister's - fashion, which was very feminine and sexy, but always sophisticated. ~ Stephanie Sigman

Films are a very personal experience - just like a martini - so I try to think about what I like, what projects I like to be in, and make sure I feel proud about it because, at the end, I'm the only one that's going to look back and feel proud or not about what I was doing. ~ Stephanie Sigman

[Stephanie Plum]Jeez. No True Love
[Grandma Mazur] There's always been true love, but in my day, you either talked yourself into thinking you had it, or you talked yourself into thinking you didn't need it. ~ Janet Evanovich

I've been having a dry spell and it's time to make it rain," I ~ Stephanie Brother

I think being ambitious, successful, powerful, making a lot of money - I don't care what color you are as a woman; it's difficult to find a mate. I think the natural order is that men want to be providers. ~ Stephanie Allain

I've got self-love, self-confidence, and self-motivation... I AM POWERFUL. ~ Stephanie Lahart

Ah babe, I love you but I'd rather take a bullet than date you," Jake said teasingly, adding softly, "We both are too fucked up to date each other and we love each other enough not to put each other through that hell." – Jake Carlisle to Stephanie Carovella. ~ Nina D'Angelo

She'd disappeared like a broken star, leaving the world untouched, save for the bits of missing light that no one would ever see again. ~ Stephanie Garber

For it was also said the Prince Of Hearts was not capable of love because his heart had stopped beating long ago. Only one person could make it beat again: his one true love. They said his kiss had been fatal to all but her - his only weakness - and as he'd sought her, he'd let a trail of corpses. ~ Stephanie Garber

I'm just saying that money is made in so many more interesting ways now. ~ Stephanie Clifford

It wasn't until the 1920s that a bare majority of children grew up in families where the father's labor purchased the family's provisions, while their mother did unpaid child care, elder care, and housework.

The Great Depression and World War II disrupted this family form, but it roared back in the 1950s, when the percentage of wives and mothers who were supported entirely by their husbands' wages reached a high that has never been equaled, before or since. ~ Stephanie Coontz

The idea that in prehistoric times a man would spend his life hunting only for the benefit of his own wife and children, who were dependent solely upon his hunting prowess for survival, is simply a projection of 1950s marital norms onto the past. ~ Stephanie Coontz

I think there is more pressure at trials when you are trying to make the team and you have to come first or second, and you have to go under qualifying time. ~ Stephanie Rice

You will encounter a fifth taste. Umami: uni, or sea urchin, anchovies, Parmesan, dry-aged beef with a casing of mold. It's glutamate. Nothing is a mystery anymore. They make MSG to mimic it. It's the taste of ripeness that's about to ferment. Initially, it serves as a warning. But after a familiarity develops, after you learn its name, that precipice of rot becomes the only flavor worth pursuing, the only line worth testing. ~ Stephanie Danler

I don't know what it takes to make marriage work, but I'm going to keep trying until I get it right. I haven't given up on love or marriage. ~ Stephanie Mills

Why aren't the two of you together?'
The directness of her question throws me. 'I don't know. Sometimes I think there are only so many opportunities ... to get together with someone. And we've both screwed up so many times - that we've missed our chance. ~ Stephanie Perkins

Because I love you." The words were always there. They were only waiting for me to say them. - Kellen to Calienta ~ Stephanie Keyes

Everyone feels loss and love and laughter. That's what connects humanity. It's why I love Shakespeare. ~ Stephanie Beatriz

I listen to Jay-Z, Nelly, Nas, Ludacris and all the young kids out there. I listen to them, and I have mad respect for them. ~ Stephanie Mills

Part 2
Etienne: I cheated on her every day. In my mind, I thought of you in ways I shouldn't have, again and again. She was nothing compared to you. I've never felt this way about anybody before…

Anna: But…

Etienne: The first day of school. We weren't physics partners by accident. I saw Professeur Wakefield assigning lab parnters based on where people were sitting, so I leaned forward to borrow a pencil form you at just the right moment so he'dt think we were next to each other. Anna, I wanted to be your partner the first day.

Anna: But …

Etienne: I bought you love poetry! „I love you as certain dark things are loved, secretly, between the shadow and the soul." Neruda. I starred the pasasge. God. Why didn't you open it?

Anna: Because you said it was for school

Etienne: I said you were beautiful. I slept in your bed!

Anna: You never made a move! You had a girlfriend!

Etienne: No matter what a terrible boyfriend I was, I wouldn't actually cheat on her.
But I thought you'd know. With me being there, I thought you'd know.

Anna: How could I know if you never said anything?

Etienne: How could I know if you never said anything?

Anna: You had Ellie!

Etienne: You had Toph! And Dave! Anna. I'm sorry for what happened in Luxembourg Gardens. Not because of the kiss – I've never had a kiss like that in my life – but because I didn't tell you why I ~ Stephanie Perkins

There is ugliness of mass production and consumerism, the banality of advertising. Although it claims to do just the opposite, it's predicated on disempowering and effacing persons. ~ Stephanie Mills

We're in her bedroom,and she's helping me write an essay about my guniea pig for French class. She's wearing soccer shorts with a cashmere sweater, and even though it's silly-looking, it's endearingly Meredith-appropriate. She's also doing crunches. For fun.
"Good,but that's present tense," she says. "You aren't feeding Captain Jack carrot sticks right now."
"Oh. Right." I jot something down, but I'm not thinking about verbs. I'm trying to figure out how to casually bring up Etienne.
"Read it to me again. Ooo,and do your funny voice! That faux-French one your ordered cafe creme in the other day, at that new place with St. Clair."
My bad French accent wasn't on purpose, but I jump on the opening. "You know, there's something,um,I've been wondering." I'm conscious of the illuminated sign above my head, flashing the obvious-I! LOVE! ETIENNE!-but push ahead anyway. "Why are he and Ellie still together? I mean they hardly see each other anymore. Right?"
Mer pauses, mid-crunch,and...I'm caught. She knows I'm in love with him, too.
But then I see her struggling to reply, and I realize she's as trapped in the drama as I am. She didn't even notice my odd tone of voice. "Yeah." She lowers herself slwoly back to the floor. "But it's not that simple. They've been together forever. They're practically an old married couple. And besides,they're both really...cautious."
"Cautious?"
"Yeah.You know.St. Clair doesn't rock the boat. And Ellie's the same w ~ Stephanie Perkins

What are you doing?" He flops down next to me. "Checking your email?
St. Clair snorts. "Give the lad a medal for his brilliant skills in detection. ~ Stephanie Perkins

Cookie, you have to stop preemptively ending things before they even start. I know you're afraid of making yourself vulnerable, but if you keep impeding things before they even begin, just out of fear, you'll never know." I'd never know joy. Shit damn. I worried she was right. What if I was snapping into "screw you, your loss" mode too fast? How do you take back, "No you're the one who missed"? Me and my drama trap doors. ~ Stephanie Klein

Will you please tell me you love me? I'm dying here. ~ Stephanie Perkins

The miracle of life is a lot less interesting when it's someone else's miracle. ~ Stephanie Wrobel

I'm more interested in life than life-style. Life-style means you have to drive a certain car. ~ Stephanie Zimbalist

We describe the decision-making time like being stuck at the top of a high mountain; there are two ways down, one was to jump off the steep side and the other was to roll down the rocky side. In both cases, we knew we might not be alive by the time we got to the bottom. There is no easy or less painful choice, really. - A dad ~ Stephanie Azri

They had it all wrong, of course. Bravery wasn't required to conquer fear. Indifference was. ~ Stephanie Kuehn

Lola: You know that thing you said about someone being perfect for someone else?

Cricket: Yeah?

Lola: I think you're perfect, too. Perfect for me. And ... you look amazing tonight. You always do.

Cricket: Did I black out? Because I've daydreamed those words a thousand times, but I never thought you'd actually say them. ~ Stephanie Perkins