The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud Quotes

“That is the inescapable math of tragedy and the multiplication of grief. Too many good people die a little when they lose someone they love. One death begets two or twenty or one hundred. It’s the same all over the world.”

“‘And I was even beginning to think home might be with you.’”

“And if you’ve ever wondered what happens when a person close to you is taken too soon - and it’s always too soon - you may find other truths here, truths that may break the grip of sadness in your life, that may set you free from guilt, that may even bring you back to this world from wherever you are hiding. And then you will never feel alone.”

“Give me courage. Give me strength. Please, Lord, through it all, be at my side.”

“A time for every occupation under heaven. A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted; a time for tears, a time for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing; a time for searching, a time for losing; a time for loving, a time for hating...”

“In desperate situations, people could live for three minutes without oxygen, three hours without warmth, three days without water, three weeks without food.”

“‘Dive for dreams,’ he used to say, quoting the e. e. cummings poem. ‘And live by love.’”

“These were her rituals, the routines that made her feel alive and connected. Without them, where would she be? Lost.”

“‘I read somewhere that 75 billion humans beings have lived and died since the beginning of history, and I believe their souls are out there somewhere.’ He looked straight up into the sky. ‘It makes me think of that John Lennon song. You know, ‘We all shine on in the moon and the stars and the sun.””

“On the horizon, he saw the full moon. God dropped it there, he was sure, as a reminder that what is beautiful is fleeting.”

“Nothing had changed. Everything had changed.”

“We chase wild dreams and long for all that eludes us, when the greatest joys are within our grasp, if we can only recognize them.”

“That’s death and life, you see. We all shine on. You just have to release your hearts, alert your senses, and pay attention. A leaf, a star, a song, a laugh. Notice the little things, because somebody is reaching out to you. Qualcuno ti ama. Somebody loves you.”

“‘Most of all,’ he continued, ‘I miss that feeling when you go to sleep at night and when you wake up in the morning. It’s the feeling that everything is all right in the world. You know, that amazing feeling that you’re whole, that you’ve got everything you want, that you aren’t missing anything. Sometimes when I wake up, I get it for just a moment. It lasts a few seconds, but then I remember what happened, and how nothing has been the same since.’”

“There’s a reason for everything, you said, and though it’s a mystery to me now, I know it won’t always be so.”

“You may think some of this seems far-fetched, even impossible. Believe me, I know we all cling to life and its certainties. It’s not easy in these cynical times to cast off the hardness and edge that gets us through our days. But try just a little.”

“Every pound of granite, every begonia blossom, Charlie thought, was proof of the enduring human need to be remembered.”

“When that day comes, we’ll be waiting. Waiting for Charlie St. Cloud to come home to us. Until then we offer these parting words... May he live in peace.”

“I believe in miracles.”

“‘Sailing,’ he liked to joke, ‘is the fine art of getting wet and becoming ill, while going nowhere slowly at great expense.’”