Top 450 Bonnie Garmus Quotes (2026 Update)
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451. “Although, honestly, if she’d been able to ask her dead father anything it would have been how he’d felt the first time he saw her mother. Was it love at first sight?”

— Bonnie Garmus

452. “Having a baby, Elizabeth realized, was a little like living with a visitor from a distant planet.”

— Bonnie Garmus

453. “It wasn’t that he was writing anything terrible about her – just the opposite. Rather, it was more that he couldn’t risk having her discover that he was obsessed with the notion that she might die.”

— Bonnie Garmus

454. “When she said “it,” he wasn’t sure what she meant. Had she been fired for killing her lover? Or for being an unwed mother? Both explanations were plausible, but he far preferred the second one.”

— Bonnie Garmus

455. “Elizabeth harangued about women accepting their subordinate positions as if they were preordained, as if they believed their smaller bodies were a biological indication of smaller brains, as if they were naturally inferior, but charmingly so.”

— Bonnie Garmus

456. “You’ve never forgiven yourself,” Wakely finally said. “But it’s him you have to forgive. What you need to do is accept.”

— Bonnie Garmus

457. “Truth was, he wasn’t making much headway with her anyway. She’d steadily refused to yield to his repeated “you’re not smart” put-downs. No matter how many times he said it, she hadn’t once responded in the proper fashion. Where was the low self-esteem? Where were the tears?”

— Bonnie Garmus

458. “Only Mr. Sloane was ugly, and that was because he was unattractive on the inside. In.”

— Bonnie Garmus

459. “Anyway, no one else knew how mad she was; she’d kept it to herself. Well, except during labor, when she might have shouted some regrettable things, her fingernails possibly digging into some unknown person’s forearm as the bigger contractions took hold. She remembered someone besides herself shrieking and swearing. It seemed strange and unprofessional.”

— Bonnie Garmus

460. “There’s no way you go through life without being embarrassed or ashamed about something.”

— Bonnie Garmus

461. “Do you know how extraordinary that is?” she said. “That a man would treat his lover’s work as seriously as his own?”

— Bonnie Garmus

462. “As if changing her name is the finish line for a race she’s been in since she was six.”

— Bonnie Garmus

463. “Not at all,” he said. “I can safely say there is not a single normal event in the Bible. Probably one of the reasons it’s so popular. Who wants to believe life is exactly how it seems?”

— Bonnie Garmus

464. “Mrs. Sloane lifted her hands. “Well, Elizabeth, I’m Harriet.” And then there was an awkward silence, as if by sharing their names, they’d each revealed more than they’d planned.”

— Bonnie Garmus

465. “But really it was because of Mr. Sloane. He’d been drinking more and swearing more and the only way she knew how to deal with it was to stay away.”

— Bonnie Garmus

466. “All dogs have the ability to bite,” she said over her shoulder. “Just as all humans have the ability to cause harm. The trick is to act in a reasonable way so that harm becomes unnecessary.”

— Bonnie Garmus

467. “I’m surprised by how many women sign up for motherhood considering how difficult pregnancy can be – morning sickness, stretch marks, death. Again, you’re fine,” he added quickly, taking in her horrified face. “It’s just that we tend to treat pregnancy as the most common condition in the world – as ordinary as stubbing a toe – when the truth is, it’s like getting hit by a truck. Although obviously a truck causes less damage.”

— Bonnie Garmus

468. “Honey,” Elizabeth said. “I don’t understand. Why did this upset you? Mr. Roth did a good job. It’s a good article. I’m not mad at you; I’m glad you read it. He wrote something truthful about me and these other women and I very much hope this gets published. Somewhere.”

— Bonnie Garmus

469. “The reverend rubbed the back of his neck. In his experience, these homes were staffed with pedophiles.”

— Bonnie Garmus

470. “In contrast, Supper at Six focuses on our commonalities – our chemistries. So even though our viewers may find themselves locked into a learned societal behavior – say, the old ‘men are like this, women are like that’ type of thing – the show encourages them to think beyond that cultural simplicity. To think sensibly. Like a scientist.”

— Bonnie Garmus

471. “The problem, Calvin,” she asserted, “is that half the population is being wasted.”

— Bonnie Garmus

472. “Your job is to question things – to search for answers. But sometimes – and I know this for a fact – there just aren’t any. You know that prayer that starts.”

— Bonnie Garmus

473. “The only real issue with these people, besides the occasional hygiene challenge, was that they always seemed to embrace failure as a positive outcome. “I have not failed,” they’d endlessly quote Edison, “I’ve just found ten thousand ways that won’t work.” Which may be an acceptable thing to say in science but is absolutely the wrong thing to say to a roomful of investors looking for an immediate, high-ticket, chronic treatment for cancer.”

— Bonnie Garmus

474. “Although she was only almost four, Mad was already bigger than most five-year-olds and could read better than many sixth graders. But despite these physical and intellectual strides, just like her antisocial mother and grudge-holding father, she had few friends.”

— Bonnie Garmus

475. “By the way, how’s the lab tech job going? Suicidal yet?”

— Bonnie Garmus

476. “And then they looked at one another as if to confirm what they had already long suspected: Americans were idiots.”

— Bonnie Garmus

477. “Do you keep secrets?” “Yes,” he admitted. “How about you?” “Me too,” she said. “I’m pretty sure everyone does,” he said. “Especially the people who say they don’t. There’s no way you go through life without being embarrassed or ashamed about something.”

— Bonnie Garmus

478. “And then there was the illogical art of female friendship itself, the way it seemed to demand an ability to both keep and reveal secrets using precise timing.”

— Bonnie Garmus

479. “Roth stared down at the table. He’d had a normal upbringing – two parents, no suicides, no murders, not even a single wayward touch from a priest in his parish. And yet he still found plenty of to complain about. What was wring with him? Just as people had a bad habit of dismissing others’ problems and tragedies, so too did they have a bad habit of not appreciating what they have. Or had.”

— Bonnie Garmus

480. “I believe in a few things,” he corrected. “Mostly the things about not giving up hope, not giving in to darkness.”

— Bonnie Garmus

481. “Humans. Some of them didn’t seem to grasp their actual status within the animal kingdom.”

— Bonnie Garmus