Top 450 Bonnie Garmus Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “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

52. “She didn’t want children – she knew this about herself – but she also knew that plenty of other women did want children and a career.”

— Bonnie Garmus

53. “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

54. “Kin,” she finished. It was that last word that cemented their odd, tell-all friendship, the kind that only arises when a wronged person meets someone who has been similarly wronged and discovers that while it may be the only thing they share, it is more than enough.”

— Bonnie Garmus

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

— Bonnie Garmus

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

— Bonnie Garmus

57. “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

58. “Nature works on a higher intellectual plane. We can learn more, we can go further, but to accomplish this, we must throw open the doors. 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.”

— Bonnie Garmus

59. “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

60. “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

61. “In TV, this is referred to as the Afternoon Depression Zone. Too late to get anything meaningful done; too early to go home.”

— Bonnie Garmus

62. “She didn’t want children – she knew this about herself – but she also knew that plenty of other women did want children and a career. And what was wrong with that? Nothing. It was exactly what men got.”

— Bonnie Garmus

63. “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

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

— Bonnie Garmus

65. “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

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

— Bonnie Garmus

67. “Families required constant maintenance.”

— Bonnie Garmus

68. “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.”

— Bonnie Garmus

69. “And it was all because Calvin continued to omit one simple truth: the pair is the hardest boat to row. It’s like trying to learn to fly by starting out in a B-52. But what choice did he have? He knew the men weren’t going to let her row with them in a bigger boat like an eight; besides being female, her lack of experience meant she’d ruin the row. Worse, she’d probably catch a crab and crack a few ribs. He hadn’t mentioned crabs yet. For obvious reasons.”

— Bonnie Garmus

70. “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

71. “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

72. “It was a form of naivete, he thought, the way she continued to believe that all it took to get through life was grit. Sure, grit was critical, but it also took luck, and if luck wasn’t available, then help. Everyone needed help.”

— Bonnie Garmus

73. “On the other hand, wasn’t that the very definitely of life? Constant adaptations brought about by a series of never-ending mistakes?”

— Bonnie Garmus

74. “We never say fairy godfathers. The fairy person is always female. Because of organized crime?”

— Bonnie Garmus

75. “We both know food is the catalyst that unlocks our brains, binds our families, and determines our futures.”

— Bonnie Garmus

76. “A pencil instead of a pen? Because unlike ink, graphite is erasable. People make mistakes, Mr. Roth. A pencil allows one to clear the mistake and move on. Scientists expect mistakes, and because of it, we embrace failure.” Then she eyed his pen disapprovingly.”

— Bonnie Garmus

77. “Except her grudges were mainly reserved for a patriarchal society founded on the idea that women were less. Less capable. Less intelligent. Less inventive.”

— Bonnie Garmus

78. “Imagine if all men took women seriously. Education would change.”

— Bonnie Garmus

79. “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

80. “When it came to equality, 1952 was a real disappointment.”

— Bonnie Garmus

81. “They sat for a minute in uncomfortable silence, the hateful little blue box plopped between them like a bad referee at a tight match.”

— Bonnie Garmus

82. “Imagine if all men took women seriously. Education would change. The workforce would revolutionize.”

— Bonnie Garmus

83. “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

84. “Elizabeth continued to sit silently. Against her better judgment, she felt herself warming to the idea. She didn’t want to: she didn’t like the notion that systems had to be outsmarted. Why couldn’t they just be smart in the first place? And she certainly didn’t like favors. Favors smacked of cheating. And yet she had goals, and dammit, why should she just sit by? Sitting by never got anyone anywhere.”

— Bonnie Garmus

85. “Whatever you need, whatever you want, whatever you seek, reconnect with it in that moment.”

— Bonnie Garmus

86. “Because unlike adults, her visitor never tired of even the smallest discovery; always saw the magic in the ordinary.”

— Bonnie Garmus

87. “How dare you,” he said, his voice rising. “A woman telling me what pregnancy is. Who do you think you are?”

— Bonnie Garmus

88. “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

89. “Dr. Mason had warned her that infants were hard work, but this wasn’t work: it was indenture. The tiny tyrant was no less demanding than Nero; no less insane than King Ludwig. And the crying. It made her feel inadequate. Worse, it raised the possibility that her daughter might not like her. Already.”

— Bonnie Garmus

90. “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

91. “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

92. “Afternoon Depression Zone.”

— Bonnie Garmus

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

— Bonnie Garmus

94. “As he bent down to tie his laces, his chest filled with something new. Was it gratitude? He, the early orphaned, never-before-loved, unattractive Calvin Evans, had, by hook or by crook, found this woman, this dog, this research, this row, this run, Jack. It was all so much more than he’d ever expected, so much more than he ever deserved.”

— Bonnie Garmus

95. “She’d just finished telling Six-Thirty that fiction was problematic. People were always insisting they knew what it meant, even if the writer hadn’t meant that at all, and even if what they thought it meant had no actual meaning.”

— Bonnie Garmus

96. “Stability and Structure... Chemistry is inseparable from life – by its very definition, chemistry is life.”

— Bonnie Garmus

97. “She looked like a cross between a hotel maid and a bomb squad expert.”

— Bonnie Garmus

98. “Physical suffering, he’d long ago learned, bonds people in a way that everyday life can’t.”

— Bonnie Garmus

99. “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. Whenever she moved to a new town, girls would take her aside at Sunday school and breathlessly confide their crushes on certain boys.”

— Bonnie Garmus

100. “But Madeline is the tallest one in your class.” “Which is another problem,” Mudford said. “Her height is making the boys feel bad.”

— Bonnie Garmus