Elin Hilderbrand > Quotes

“Forgiveness is a powerful thing.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Castaways

“Guilt and no guilt: these were the worst things. The only thing worse than the guilt was the fear of getting caught.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, A Summer Affair

“When you peered into the windows of someone else's life, you could only guess what was going on.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, Barefoot

“If you love something, set it free. If it was meant to be, it will come back to you. But this, of course, was bullshit. If you loved something and let it go...it would (hello!) find something else to love.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Castaways

“To be early is to be on time, to be on time is to be late, to be late is to be forgotten.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, A Summer Affair

“And the worst thing about being young is not being able to appreciate that you’re young because you aren’t old enough to know any better.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, 28 Summers

“All her life, Claire had had a problem figuring out where other people ended and she began. All her life, she’d taken on the world’s hurt; she held herself responsible. But why?”
― Elin Hilderbrand, A Summer Affair

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Hotel Nantucket

“It was like we had known all along that the sky was going to fall and then it fell and we pretended to be surprised.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Love Season

“He has never known a woman so free from conceit, vanity, ambition, pretense. He has never known a woman so willing to show the world that she is a human being.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Blue Bistro

“...of the things I want my daughters to know the greatest of these is love.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Island

“Sometimes you regret the things you do, but they're over and done. Regretting the things you didn't do is tougher because they're still out there, haunting you with the what ifs.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Matchmaker

“Never let a man be responsible for your happiness.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, Summer of '69

“Just be aware that what you achieve doesn’t matter as much as what kind of person you are,”
― Elin Hilderbrand, 28 Summers

“I will hold your hand and we will walk across this world, and I will sing to you and our babies, and that will be enough for me.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Island

“When deep August arrives, a certain melancholy sets in, the kind people get on a Sunday afternoon.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Hotel Nantucket

“Sadness comes long after all of the other, more difficult and destructive emotions have passed”
― Elin Hilderbrand, Summer of '69

“Women clearly felt things more deeply: they read sub-text where men saw only white space.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Castaways

“Some people don’t like being happy. They’re much more comfortable when they have a problem.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Beach Club

“With this in mind, Ava tells herself to be present and celebrate the holiday instead of wishing it was over. After all, one is given only a certain number of Christmases in one's life.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, Winter Street

“What happened when we died? How were we to know that death wasn't as profound an adventure as life was?”
― Elin Hilderbrand, Summerland

“Perfect happiness existed, but perhaps only in small increments.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Island

“Love is messy and complicated and unfair,”
― Elin Hilderbrand, Winter in Paradise

“The only person who wants the soldier to live more than the soldier himself is the soldier’s mother. Kate”
― Elin Hilderbrand, Summer of '69

“First you love the music that your parents love—and then, later in life, you love the songs your kids love.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, Here's to Us

“The charitable acts that count the most, Greer believes, are those done without anyone knowing.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Perfect Couple

“And maybe, just maybe, this summer will end up being one that people write songs about.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, Summer of '69

“It's not a house to us. It's a home. And it's not a home, it's s way of life. Our summertime happens here. This house is part of our past, it's our present, it'll be our future. It's who we are.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, Here's to Us

“I am here now to tell you that you were wrong. Family is not the only thing that matters. There are other things: Pachelbel’s Canon in D matters, and fresh-picked corn on the cob, and true friends, and the sound of the ocean, and the poems of William Carlos Williams, and the constellations in the sky, and random acts of kindness, and a garden on the day when all its flowers are at their peak. Fluffy pancakes matter and crisp clean sheets and the guitar riff in “Layla,” and the way clouds look when you are above them in an airplane. Preserving the coral reef matters, and the thirty-four paintings of Johannes Vermeer matter, and kissing matters.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, Beautiful Day

“The moment their eyes meet, the moment their hands touch. That certainty. That recognition. You. You are the one. This is what it feels like. Nothing, as it turns out, can take the place of love.”
― Elin Hilderbrand, The Perfect Couple