Home > Author > Kristin Harmel
1 " Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood. "
― Kristin Harmel , When We Meet Again
2 " Yes. There is one God, and he lives in the sky, and he hears all of us. It is just that here on earth, we are confused about how to believe in him. But what does it matter, as long as we trust he is there? "
― Kristin Harmel , The Sweetness of Forgetting
3 " I look to the right as I cross the bridge and smile to see the tip of the Eiffel Tower soaring over rooftops in the distance on the other side of the river. I've seen it in photographs a thousand times, but seeing it in person for the first time that reminds me that I'm really, truly here, thousands of miles away, across an ocean from home. "
4 " The thing is, not every happily ever after needs to end with a Prince Charming "
― Kristin Harmel , The Life Intended
5 " But we aren’t defined by the names we carry or the religion we practice, or the nation whose flag flies over our heads. I know that now. We’re defined by who we are in our hearts, who we choose to be on this earth. "
― Kristin Harmel , The Book of Lost Names
6 " I am not sure about anything. But if we don’t have hope, we don’t have anything. "
― Kristin Harmel , The Room on Rue Amelie
7 " I mention in the dedication that this book is partially in honor of booksellers and librarians everywhere. I can’t say enough about how much I’ve been impacted by the magic of bookstores and libraries. Books can change lives, but it is the people who love them, who dedicate their lives to them, who make the real difference. If books can’t find their way to the readers who need them, who will be touched by them, who will be transformed by them, they lose their power. So thank you for the bottom of my heart to anyone who works in a bookstore or a library—and especially to those of you who have been courageous and adventurous enough to become bookstore owners, which must be as perilous at times as it is rewarding. Books are more than just words on a page; they are bridges to building communities and to developing more compassionate, more aware citizens. Those of you who love books enough to want to share them are truly changing the world. (in acknowledgements) "
8 " Once you’ve fallen in love with books, their presence can make you feel at home anywhere, even in places where you shouldn’t belong. "
9 " He had taught her to love reading, one of the greatest gifts a parent could give a child, and in doing so, he had opened the world to her. "
10 " Life doesn't work out the way we plan, but maybe it works out the way it's supposed to after all. "
11 " Remember that God’s plan for you might be different than the plan you have for yourself. "
12 " Some days I wake up and think, How did I get here? It's like one day, you just realize you're not young anymore, and you already made your choices, and now it's too late to change anything. "
13 " anyone who saw the magic in books had to be good. "
14 " You can’t judge a person by their language or their place of origin—though it seems that each new generation insists upon learning that lesson for itself. "
15 " ...we are only responsible for the things we do—or fail to do—ourselves. "
16 " Ah. I should have known. You’re one of us. … You’re someone who finds herself in the pages,”… "
17 " You have to be absolutely sure. Otherwise, regret will grow in spaces you don’t even know are there. "
18 " She doesn’t understand what it means to love books so passionately that you would die without them, that you would simply stop breathing, stop existing. It is quite beyond me, in fact, why she became a librarian in the first place. "
19 " that in moments like this, it doesn’t matter what you were born to be. It matters what you choose to become. "
― Kristin Harmel , The Forest of Vanishing Stars
20 " parents make all sorts of errors, because our ability to raise our children is always colored by the lives we’ve lived before they came along. "
