Rachel Simon Quotes

#1. When I speak of religion I mean a constant inward sense of communion with God ...

Rachel Simon

#2. Yes, we can all cart our fractured selves along as we move through our lives. But we can choose whether we keep plodding along the same rutted road, or take a turn we'd never thought was ours to take.

Rachel Simon

#3. But never had come first.

Rachel Simon

#4. The reactions of others were actually another lesson she'd learned about change. When change happened to an individual, it happened to everyone around her - sometimes in ways she wished for, though sometimes in ways she wished against.

Rachel Simon

#5. Follow your inclination. It will take you to the thoughts you'd never known you'd had.

Rachel Simon

#6. And she'd felt an opening in her chest where she hadn't known anything was closed.

Rachel Simon

#7. When change happened to an individual, it happened to everyone around her - sometimes in ways she wished for, though sometimes in ways she wished against
Lynnie p 228-229

Rachel Simon

#8. But those were only the headlines. The more important stories lay deep inside ...
p 292

Rachel Simon

#9. She's sad a lot. She's sad in the way Laura wears glasses and Max has freckles and Beth is retarded. There's no reason, it's just the way it is.

Rachel Simon

#10. A rainy day can actually be a very important day. And a small hope isn't really small if it makes a lost hope less sad.

Rachel Simon

#11. In our days of prosperity it is more difficult to sustain a religious spirit than in times of adversity, because we are apt to forget that God who has bountifully given may also take away.

Rachel Simon

#12. So you never know when you can get through.
p 179 Jack the Bus Driver talking about helping a woman on the bus who was an alcoholic

Rachel Simon

#13. A person comes into the world with a fist-and a grasp. Yes, we are built to fight one another, but also to embrace. How cleverly we are created.

Rachel Simon

#14. How many other lives are hidden, and hearts are seeking? How many would give anything in the world to be held by the person they love?

Rachel Simon

#15. He could not talk himself out of pain any longer. He had no one to be strong for. So finally, he cried. He cried with deep sobs, head bent to the ground, palms pressed to his eyes. He cried so hard that sorrow rushed out of his face. He cried until he felt like the sea.

Rachel Simon

#16. She felt so lovely in his hands. She felt so loved in his eyes.

Rachel Simon

#17. Silence made space for other people's words, which was important for those who needed to be listened to.

Rachel Simon

#18. Happiness, I have grasped, is a destination, like strawberry Fields. Once you find the way in, there you are, and you'll never feel low again.

Rachel Simon

#19. There are two kinds of hope: the kind you couldn't do anything about and the kind you could. And even if the kind you could do something about wasn't what you'd originally wanted, it was still worth doing. A rainy day is better than no day. A small happiness can make a big sadness less sad.

Rachel Simon

#20. Sometimes you think you know what you want, she said, hugging her children, until you see how much more you can have.

Rachel Simon

#21. Then," he says, "as my mind got functioning, everything was just beautiful. There was no right or wrong feeling, no social pressure. I believe that's what heaven's going to be like ... "
p 55

Rachel Simon

#22. She had wondered which was worse: the sudden good-bye you know is a good-bye or the long good-bye you have to guess.

Rachel Simon