Helen Simonson Books & Quotes

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“You are a wise man, Major, and I will consider your advice with great care—and humility." He finished his tea and rose from the table to go to his room. "But I must ask you, do you really understand what it means to be in love with an unsuitable woman?" "My dear boy," said the Major. "Is there really any other kind?”

Love Humor Women

Book:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“He had never imagined so clearly the consequences of mailing a letter—the impossibility of retrieving it from the iron mouth of the box; the inevitability if its steady progress through the postal system; the passing from bag to bag and postman to postman until a lone man in a van pulls up to the door and pushes a small pile through the letterbox. It seemed suddenly horrible that one's words could not be taken back, one's thoughts allowed none of the remediation of speaking face to face.”

Conversation Letters

Book:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“We are all small-minded people, creeping about the earth grubbing for our own advantage and making the very mistakes for which we want to humiliate our neighbors.”

Wisdom Knowledge Kindness Ignorance Living

Book:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“But it's not enough to be in love. It's about how you spend your days, what you do together, who you choose as friends, and most of all it's what work you do ... Better to break both our hearts now than watch them wither away over time.”

Love Relationship

Book:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“The human race is all the same when it comes to romantic relations,' said the Major. 'A startling absence of impulse control combined with complete myopia.”

Love Humor Romance Birth Control

Book:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“Only sometimes when we pick and choose among the rules we discover later that we have set aside something precious in the process.”

Regret Morals Rules

Book:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“...I tell myself it does not matter what one reads--favorite authors, particular themes--as long as we read something. It is not even important to own the books.”

Reading Books

Book:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“No one really contemplates death when making these life decisions, thought the Major. If they did, what different choices might they make?”

Life Decisions Decisions Quotes

Book:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“Look here, it's all very tidy and convenient to see the world in black and white,' said the Major, trying to soften his tone slightly. 'It's a particular passion of young men eager to sweep away their dusty elders.' He stopped to organize his thoughts into some statement short enough for a youthful attention span. 'However, philosophical rigidity is usually combined with a complete lack of education or real-world experience, and it is often augmented with strange haircuts and an aversion to bathing. Not in your case, of course—you are very neat.' Abdul Wahid looked confused, which was an improvement over the frown. 'You are very strange,' he said. 'Are you saying it is wrong, stupid, to try to live a life of faith?' 'No, I think it is admirable,' said the Major. 'But I think a life of faith must start with remembering that humility is the first virtue before God.”

Faith Youth Humility

Book:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“My dear Mrs. Ali, I would hardly refer to you as old," he said. "You are in what I would call the very prime flowering of mature womanhood." It was a little grandiose but he hoped to surprise a blush. Instead she laughed out loud at him. "I have never heard anyone try to trowel such a thick layer of flattery on the wrinkles and fat deposits of advanced middle age, Major," she said. "I am fifty-eight years old and I think I have slipped beyond flowering. I can only hope now to dry out into one of those everlasting bouquets.”

Age

Book:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“He cursed himself for having assumed the weather would be sunny. Perhaps it was the result of evolution, he thought--some adaptive gene that allowed the English to go on making blithe outdoor plans in the face of almost certain rain.”

Hope Evolution Rain Weather Englishmen

Book:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“He opened his mouth to say that she looked extremely beautiful and deserved armfuls of roses, but the words were lost in committee somewhere, shuffled aside by the parts of his head that worked full-time at avoiding ridicule.”

Relationships

Book:Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

Source: Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

“Youth's lost companion may be the measured friend of old age, I hope", said Daniel. "I may write a poem on the subject." "Dear God, it sounds more like a cross-stitched pillow than a poem," said Hugh.”

Cross Stitch

Book:The Summer Before the War

Source: The Summer Before the War

“They sat a moment in embrace of silent mutual comfort, which was, she often thought, the reward of those long married.”

Marriage

Book:The Summer Before the War

Source: The Summer Before the War

“At our age, surely there are better things to sustain us, to sustain a marriage, than the brief flame of passion?" ..."You are mistaken, Ernest," she said at last. "There is only the passionate spark. Without it, two people living together may be lonelier than if they lived quite alone.”

Passion Marriage

Author:Helen Simonson

Helen Simonson Books

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

The Summer Before the War

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