Top 450 Bonnie Garmus Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “Everyone has a breaking point; she worried that Elizabeth had finally reached hers.”

— Bonnie Garmus

52. “Courage is the root of change.”

— Bonnie Garmus

53. “Every day she found parenthood like taking a test for which she had not studied. The questions were daunting and there wasn’t nearly enough multiple choice. Occasionally she woke up damp with sweat, having imagined a knock at the door and some sort of authority figure with an empty baby-sized basket saying, “We’ve just reviewed your last parental performance report and there’s really no nice way to put this. You’re fired.”

— Bonnie Garmus

54. “Chemistry is change and change is the core of your belief system. Which is good because that’s what we need more of – people who refuse to accept the status quo, who aren’t afraid to take on the unacceptable. But sometimes the unacceptable – your brother’s suicide, Calvin’s death – is, in fact, permanent, Elizabeth. Things happen. They just do.”

— Bonnie Garmus

55. “She looked back incredulously. “Sometimes I think,” she said slowly, “that if a man were to spend a day being a woman in America, he wouldn’t make it past noon.” The woman on the other side of him tapped his knee. “Prepare for a revolt.”

— Bonnie Garmus

56. “Look,” he said, “life has never been fair, and yet you continue to operate as if it is – as if once you get a few wrongs straightened out, everything else will fall into place. They won’t. You want my advice?” And before she could say no, he added, “Don’t work the system. Outsmart it.”

— Bonnie Garmus

57. “It was because of Six-Thirty. He was always there, sniffing out danger, blocking light sockets, positioning himself beneath the bookshelf so when she scaled it – which she did nearly every day – he would be the cushion that broke her fall. He’d failed once to protect someone he loved. He would not fail again.”

— Bonnie Garmus

58. “Don’t work the system. Outsmart it.”

— Bonnie Garmus

59. “Humans were strange, Six-Thirty thought, the way they constantly battled dirt in their aboveground world, but after death willingly entombed themselves in it.”

— Bonnie Garmus

60. “Mr. Sloane truly believed other women found him attractive. Harriet had no idea where that specific brand of self-confidence came from. Because while stupid people may not know they’re stupid because they’re stupid, surely unattractive people must know they’re unattractive because of mirrors.”

— Bonnie Garmus

61. “But weathering is called weathering for a reason: it erodes. As the months went by, her fortitude was tested again and again. The only thing that gave her any respite at all was the theater, and even that sometimes disappointed.”

— Bonnie Garmus

62. “Cooking is serious science. In fact, it’s chemistry.”

— Bonnie Garmus

63. “It is my experience that far too many people do not appreciate the work and sacrifice that goes into being a wife, a mother, a woman. Well, I am not one of them. At the end of our thirty minutes together, we will have done something worth doing. We will have created something that will not go unnoticed. We will have made supper. And it will matter.”

— Bonnie Garmus

64. “Men and women are both human beings. And as humans, we’re by-products of our upbringings, victims of our lackluster educational systems, and choosers of our behaviors.”

— Bonnie Garmus

65. “Hello, Creature, he transmitted as he pressed his ear into Elizabeth’s belly. It’s me, Six-Thirty. I’m the dog.”

— Bonnie Garmus

66. “You love each other, but he’s probably not interested in hearing about the invisible hand. And who can blame him, because you know the invisible hand is libertarian garbage.”

— Bonnie Garmus

67. “It wasn’t that he couldn’t function without her, he told Four Seat, but rather that he didn’t see the point of functioning without her. “I don’t know what to call it,” he’d confided following a full examination. “Am I addicted to her? Am I dependent in some sick sort of way? Could I have a brain tumor?” “Jesus, Six, it’s called happiness,” Four Seat explained. “When’s the wedding?”

— Bonnie Garmus

68. “He was raised without a family, without parents he could count on, without the protection and love every child is entitled to.”

— Bonnie Garmus

69. “Humans naturally want to belong – it’s part of our biology. But our society makes us feel that we’re never good enough to belong.”

— Bonnie Garmus

70. “The point is, you and your husband are completely different and yet you still have a strong connection. That’s fine. It’s also ionic.”

— Bonnie Garmus

71. “She’d felt this way her entire life. She’d been defined not by what she did, but by what others had done. In the past she was either the offspring of an arsonist, the daughter of a serial wife, the sister of a hanged homosexual, or the graduate student of a renowned lecher. Now she was the girlfriend of a famous chemist. But she was never just Elizabeth Zott.”

— Bonnie Garmus

72. “It’s a lot easier to have faith in something you can’t see, can’t touch, can’t explain, and can’t change, rather than to have faith in something you actually can.”

— Bonnie Garmus

73. “It’s one thing to be brilliant, but to be brilliant without opportunity – that was something else. If Mozart had been born to a poor family in Bombay instead of a cultured one in Salzburg, would he have composed Symphony no. 36 in C? Not a chance.”

— Bonnie Garmus

74. “Too many brilliant minds are kept from scientific research thanks to ignorant biases like gender and race. It infuriates me and it should infuriate you. Science has big problems to solve: famine, disease, extinction. And those who purposefully close the door to others using self-serving, outdated cultural notions are not only dishonest, they’re knowingly lazy. Hastings Research Institute is full of them.”

— Bonnie Garmus

75. “In short, the reduction of women to something less than men, and the elevation of men to something more than women, is not biological: it’s cultural. And it starts with two words: pink and blue. Everything skyrockets out of control from there.”

— Bonnie Garmus

76. “The tombstone was supposed to have read, “Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun,” a quote from Marcus Aurelius, but the tombstone was small and the engraver had made the first part too big and had run out of room.”

— Bonnie Garmus

77. “Because while she was stuck forever being Mrs. Sloane – she was a Catholic – she never wanted to turn into a Mr. Sloane.”

— Bonnie Garmus

78. “And I promise you this: you won’t get away with it.”

— Bonnie Garmus

79. “Discrimination based on skin color is not only scientifically ludicrous, it’s also a sign of profound ignorance.”

— Bonnie Garmus

80. “From below, Six-Thirty exhaled. Lies, lies, and more lies.”

— Bonnie Garmus

81. “It’s one thing to be brilliant, but to be brilliant without opportunity – that was something else.”

— Bonnie Garmus

82. “Sure, grit was critical, but it also took luck, and if luck wasn’t available, then help. Everyone needed help.”

— Bonnie Garmus

83. “What did I tell you? Your bond with that boy is hydrogen only. When are you going to wake up and smell the ions?”

— Bonnie Garmus

84. “I don’t have hopes,” Mad explained, studying the address. “I have faith.” He looked at her in surprise. “Well, that’s a funny word to hear coming from you.” “How come?” “Because,” he said, “well, you know. Religion is based on faith.” “But you realize,” she said carefully, as if not to embarrass him further, “that faith isn’t based on religion. Right?”

— Bonnie Garmus

85. “I believe in a few things,” he corrected. “Mostly the things about not giving up hope, not giving in to darkness. As for the word ‘preach,’ I prefer ‘relate.’ Anyway, what I believe is irrelevant.”

— Bonnie Garmus

86. “God is why they were still married and why their marriage was her burden to bear – because it was given to her by God. God was big on burdens, and He made sure everyone got one.”

— Bonnie Garmus

87. “Life’s a mystery, isn’t it? People who try and plan it inevitably end up disappointed.”

— Bonnie Garmus

88. “He’d not had much experience with families, but he’d always assumed that being part of one was important: a prerequisite for stability, what one relied on to get through the hard times. He’d never really considered that a family could actually be the hard times.”

— Bonnie Garmus

89. “Actually, when you think about it, rowing is almost exactly like raising kids. Both require patience, endurance, strength, and commitment. And neither allow us to see where we’re going – only where we’ve been. I find that very reassuring, don’t you? Except for the flip-outs – of course. I could really do with fewer flip-outs.” “You mean flips.” “Flip-outs,” he insisted, getting in his car. “Yesterday one of my kids hit the other with a shovel.”

— Bonnie Garmus

90. “You make a fair point, Evans,” Wakely wrote back. “But people need to believe in something bigger than themselves.” “Why?” Calvin pressed. “What’s wrong with believing in ourselves? Anyway, if stories must be used, why not rely on a fable or fairy tale? Aren’t they just as valid a vehicle for teaching morality? Except maybe better? Because no one has to pretend to believe that the fables and tales are true?”

— Bonnie Garmus

91. “She couldn’t remember how soon into their marriage she began to realize she wasn’t in love with him, nor he with her, but it was probably somewhere between the way he pronounced drawer “joor” and the way his thicket of body hair constantly detached itself like seeds from a dandelion head, blanketing their home.”

— Bonnie Garmus

92. “From across the room, Elizabeth straightened her papers, then rose. “Sorry to cut this short, Calvin, but I have a meeting.” “A meeting?” Calvin said, as if she’d just announced she was attending an execution. “If you worked in my lab, you’d never have to go to meetings.”

— Bonnie Garmus

93. “Imagine if all men took women seriously. Education would change. The workforce would revolutionize. Marriage counsellors would go out of business. Do you see my point?”

— Bonnie Garmus

94. “In the past she was either the offspring of an arsonist, the daughter of a serial wife, the sister of a hanged homosexual, or the graduate student of a renowned lecher.”

— Bonnie Garmus

95. “Many believe protein comes from meat, eggs, and fish,” she was saying, “but protein originates in plants, and plants are what the biggest, strongest animals in the world eat.”

— Bonnie Garmus

96. “Holding an egg in the palm of her hand, she turned to him. “Here’s a tip, Six-Thirty: never crack eggs on the side of a bowl – it increases the chance of shell fragments. Better to bring a sharp, thin knife down on the egg as if you’re cracking a whip. See?” she said, as the egg’s contents slipped into the bowl.”

— Bonnie Garmus

97. “But instead,” she continued, “women are at home, making babies and cleaning rugs. It’s legalized slavery. Even the women who wish to be homemakers find their work completely misunderstood. Men seem to think the average mother of five’s biggest decision of the day is what color to paint her nails.”

— Bonnie Garmus

98. “Dolphins are smart,” they’d say. “But cows aren’t.” This seemed partly based on the fact that cows didn’t do tricks. In Six-Thirty’s view that made cows smarter, not dumber.”

— Bonnie Garmus

99. “In the case of our chicken pot pie, notice how your carrots, peas, onions, and celery are mixed yet remain separate entities. Think about that. A successful chicken pot pie is like a society that functions at a highly efficient level. Call it Sweden.”

— Bonnie Garmus

100. “Let’s say supper at six, then,” Elizabeth said, not wanting her to go. “The home lab. Everyone – you, Wilson, Mad, Sixty-Thirty, me, Harriet, Walter. You’ll need to meet Wakely and Mason at some point, too. The whole family.”

— Bonnie Garmus