“We all pick and choose and make our religion our own, do we not?” — Helen Simonson Choose Copy Share Image
Passion is all very well, but it wouldn't do to spill the tea. — Helen Simonson Passion Copy Share Image
“...as I get older, I find myself insisting on my right to be philosophically sloppy.” — Helen Simonson Insisting Copy Share Image
“Sometimes you can't fix everything," said Amina. "Life isn't always like books." "No, it's not.” — Helen Simonson Book Copy Share Image
“It's so much easier to tell other people how to do their job than fix one's own shortcoming, isn't it?” — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
“I'm pretty sure wars would be shorter if we weren't all so eager to read about them.” — Helen Simonson Peace Copy Share Image
“There is often an inverse correlation between genius and personal hygiene.” — Helen Simonson Genius Copy Share Image
“But of course we do not like to listen to our mothers,” said Mrs. Ali, smiling. “At least, not until long after… — Helen Simonson Mother Copy Share Image
“So he dreams himself the life he cannot have?” “Exactly. But we, who can do anything, we refuse to live our dreams… — Helen Simonson Dreams Copy Share Image
“You must know that I am entirely yours to command." "I see chivalry lives on," she said. "As long as there's no… — Helen Simonson Copy Share Image
“It took him a moment to realize that they had been painted to look like fingernails, and he sighed over the extraordinary… — Helen Simonson Fingernails Copy Share Image
“The dawn chorus had still been chattering in the giant yew against the west wall of his cottage, the sky pink, when… — Helen Simonson Dawn Copy Share Image
“he realized he had inspired a sense of trust and indebtedness that would make it entirely impossible for an honorable man to… — Helen Simonson Cursed Copy Share Image
“The human race is all the same when it comes to romantic relations,' said the Major. 'A startling absence of impulse control… — Helen Simonson Birth control Copy Share Image
Only sometimes when we pick and choose among the rules we discover later that we have set aside something precious in the… — Helen Simonson Choice Copy Share Image
“It would be a primal offering of food from man to woman and a satisfyingly primitive declaration of intent. However, he mused,… — Helen Simonson Courtship Copy Share Image
“I don't believe the greatest views in the world are great because they are vast or exotic,' she said. 'I think their… — Helen Simonson Thousand years Copy Share Image
“Look here, it's all very tidy and convenient to see the world in black and white…It's a particular passion of young men… — Helen Simonson Black and white Copy Share Image
“He had forgotten that grief does not decline in a straight line or along a slow curve like a graph in a… — Helen Simonson Children Copy Share Image
But it's not enough to be in love. It's about how you spend your days, what you do together, who you choose… — Helen Simonson Break Copy Share Image
“He opened his mouth to say that she looked extremely beautiful and deserved armfuls of roses, but the words were lost in… — Helen Simonson Relationships Copy Share Image
My neighbor Alice Pierce is fond of singing folk music to her garden plants. Thinks it makes them grow or something. The… — Helen Simonson Chemicals Copy Share Image
I know something of shame...How can we not all feel it? We are all small-minded people, creeping about the earth grubbing for… — Helen Simonson Adventure Copy Share Image
“He envisaged her in the heaven he had learned about in childhood: a grassy place with blue sky and a light breeze.… — Helen Simonson Blue sky Copy Share Image
“Oh, you're American,' said Mrs. Khan, holding out her hand. 'What a charming costume.' 'The Bengal Lancers were apparently a famous Anglo-Indian… — Helen Simonson Young man Copy Share Image
“She looked at him and he read in her eyes a disappointment that he should have stooped to the dead relative excuse.… — Helen Simonson Relatives Copy Share Image
“Unlike you, who must do a cost-benefit analysis of every human interaction," he said, "I have no idea what I hope to… — Helen Simonson Thought Copy Share Image
“He had never imagined so clearly the consequences of mailing a letter—the impossibility of retrieving it from the iron mouth of the… — Helen Simonson Conversation Copy Share Image
“Americans seemed to enjoy the sport of publicly humiliating one another.” — Helen Simonson Americans Copy Share Image
“do you really know what it means to be in love with an unsuitable woman?" "Is there any other kind?” — Helen Simonson Love Copy Share Image
“He wondered whether it was his fault Roger had the perceptiveness of concrete.” — Helen Simonson Concrete Copy Share Image
“At our age, surely there are better things to sustain us, to sustain a marriage, than the brief flame of passion?" ..."You… — Helen Simonson Better things Copy Share Image
“It surprised him that his grief was sharper than in the past few days. He had forgotten that grief does not decline… — Helen Simonson Children Copy Share Image
“I fear I am as small-minded as the next woman. The trick is to know it,” she added.” — Helen Simonson Small Copy Share Image
“It’s only now I realize how easy it was to do so on the backs of other women’s sons.” — Helen Simonson Easy Copy Share Image
“and a gibbous moon was making its humpbacked way into the sky.” — Helen Simonson Moon Copy Share Image
“There is nothing more corrosive to character than money.” — Helen Simonson Character Copy Share Image
“Compounding lack of funds with intelligence, she makes herself unmarriageable.” — Helen Simonson Intelligence Copy Share Image
