The Nightingale Quotes

“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.”

“Wounds heal. Love lasts. We remain.”

“But love has to be stronger than hate, or there is no future for us.”

“I always thought it was what I wanted: to be loved and admired. Now I think perhaps I’d like to be known.”

“Some stories don’t have happy endings. Even love stories. Maybe especially love stories.”

“Love. It was the beginning and end of everything, the foundation and the ceiling and the air in between.”

“Perhaps that’s why I find myself looking backward. The past has a clarity I can no longer see in the present.”

“I am a mother and mothers don’t have the luxury of falling apart in front of their children, even when they are afraid, even when their children are adults.”

“I had forgotten how gently time passes in Paris. As lively as the city is, there’s a stillness to it, a peace that lures you in. In Paris, with a glass of wine in your hand, you can just be.”

“She wanted to bottle how safe she felt in this moment, so she could drink of it later when loneliness and fear left her parched.”

“She was so tired of being strong.”

“She has a steel exterior, but it protects a candyfloss heart.”

“If there’s one thing I never do, it’s stop.”

“Vianne didn’t hesitate. She knew now that no one could be neutral—not anymore—and as afraid as she was of risking Sophie’s life, she was suddenly more afraid of letting her daughter grow up in a world where good people did nothing to stop evil, where a good woman could turn her back on a friend in need. She reached for the toddler, took him in her arms.”

“Ask for help when you need it, and give help when you can.”

“With all the risks they were taking, love was probably the most dangerous choice of all.”

“Don’t think about who they are. Think about who you are and what sacrifices you can live with and what will break you.”

“We are all fragile, Isabelle. It’s the thing we learn in war.”

“She realized that the landscape of a woman’s soul could change as quickly as a world at war.”

“She wanted to say “Don’t leave me”, but she couldn’t do it, not again. She was so tired of begging people to love her.”

“She was so tired of being considered disposable.”

“The failing of a student to learn is the failing of the teacher to teach.”

“I loved you both with all of my damaged heart.”

“Men tell stories,” I say. It is the truest, simplest answer to his question. “Women get on with it.”

“In his face, I see the whole of my life. I see a baby who came to me long after I’d given up … and a hint of the beauty I once had. I see … my life in his eyes.”

“A broken heart hurts as badly in wartime as in peace.”

“At my age, I should not be afraid of anything—certainly not my own past.”