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41 " I'd realized that in writing happiness is useless-without suffering there is no story. "
― Isabel Allende , Maya's Notebook
42 " Until a few months ago we had a code of honor, and even the worst ruffians behaved with decency. You could leave your gold in a tent with no guard and no one would touch it, but now all that has changed. The law of the jungle rules, the only ideology is greed. Don't let yourself be parted from your weapons, and always travel in pairs or groups, because this is a land of thieves. "
― Isabel Allende , Daughter of Fortune
43 " I learned very quickly that when you emigrate, you lose the crutches that have been your support; you must begin from zero, because the past is erased with a single stroke and no one cares where you’re from or what you did before. "
― Isabel Allende , Paula
44 " Nothing changes; we humans repeat the same sins over and over, eternally. "
― Isabel Allende , Inés of My Soul
45 " I strike the ground with the soles of my feet and life rises up my legs, spreads up my skeleton, takes possession of me, drives away distress and sweetens my memory. The world trembles. "
― Isabel Allende , Island Beneath the Sea
46 " I've been so thoroughly incorporated into the California culture that I practice meditation and go to a therapist, even though I always set a trap: during my meditation I invent stories to keep from being bored, and in therapy I invent stories to keep from boring the psychologist. "
― Isabel Allende , My Invented Country: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile
47 " She regretted nothing she had shared with her lover, nor was she ashamed of the fires that had changed her life; just the opposite, she felt that they had tempered her, made her strong, given her pride in making decisions and paying the consequences for them. "
48 " The Indians’ insistence on clinging to their customs had to be the work of Satan there was no other explanation which is why the friars went out to hunt down and lasso the deserters and then whipped their doctrine of love and forgiveness into them. "
― Isabel Allende , Zorro
49 " Wishes and fears are illusions, Dil Bahadur, not realities. You must practice detachment. "
― Isabel Allende
50 " She was considered timid and morose. Only in the country, her skin tanned by the sun and her belly full of ripe fruit, running through the fields with Pedro Tercero, was she smiling and happy. Her mother said that that was the real Blanca, and that the other one, the one back in the city, was a Blanca in hibernation. "
― Isabel Allende , The House of the Spirits
51 " All you will have is the present. Waste no energy crying over yesterday or dreaming of tomorrow. Nostalgia is fatiguing and destructive, it is the vice of the expatriate. You must put down roots as if they were forever, you must have a sense of permanence. "
― Isabel Allende , Of Love and Shadows
52 " Of all fragrances, the sweetest is that of virtue. "
― Isabel Allende , Kingdom of the Golden Dragon (Eagle and Jaguar, #2)
53 " He hoped that none of his descendants would get mixed up in politics, which was a trade for butchers and bandits. "
54 " But I don't want more things than I need, either. "
55 " He understood then that all his exploits as a reporter, the feats that had won him such recognition and fame, were merely an attempt to keep his most ancient fears at bay, a stratagem for taking refuge behind a lens to test whether reality was more tolerable from that perspective. "
56 " There is no death, daughter. People die only when we forget them,' my mother explained shortly before she left me. 'If you can remember me, I will be with you always. "
― Isabel Allende , Eva Luna
57 " The two moments are much alike: birth and death are made of the same fabric. "
58 " We don't even know how strong we are until we are forced to bring that hidden strength forward. In times of tragedy, of war, of necessity, people do amazing things. The human capacity for survival and renewal is awesome. "
59 " الأم و الوطن لا يمكن المزاح فيهما: إنهما مقدسان. "
60 " that in itself age doesn’t make anyone better or wiser, but only accentuates what they have always been. "
― Isabel Allende , The Japanese Lover