Top 450 Bonnie Garmus Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “Afternoon Depression Zone.”

— Bonnie Garmus

102. “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

103. “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

104. “Losing a loved one has a way of revealing a too-simple truth: that time, as people often claimed but never heeded, really was precious.”

— Bonnie Garmus

105. “You know very well women do not continue to work when pregnant. But you-you’re not only with child, you’re unwed. It’s disgraceful.”

— Bonnie Garmus

106. “Plus, getting back in a boat will make you feel so much better. We all,” he said, thinking of his row that morning, “will feel so much better. Ask your neighbor. See if she won’t watch the baby.” “At four thirty in the morning?” “This is what is so unsung about rowing,” Dr. Mason said, turning to leave. “It happens at a time when no one’s really that busy.”

— Bonnie Garmus

107. “Elizabeth once read that 98 percent of the things people worry about never come true.”

— Bonnie Garmus

108. “Humans, Six-Thirty noticed, had a tendency to overcomplicate.”

— Bonnie Garmus

109. “I’ve never understood why when women marry, they’re expected to trade in their old names like used cars, losing their last and sometimes even their first.”

— Bonnie Garmus

110. “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

111. “Stella Pajunas.”

— Bonnie Garmus

112. “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

113. “Do not allow your talents to lie dormant, ladies. Design your own future. When you go home today, ask yourself what you will change. And then get started.”

— Bonnie Garmus

114. “They were all strangers, each living in a far-off city with lives and children of their own. She wanted to think there was some iron-clad bond that connected her to them for life, but that’s not how it worked. Families required constant maintenance.”

— Bonnie Garmus

115. “People often underestimate what a pregnant woman is capable of, but people always underestimate what a grieving pregnant woman is capable of.”

— Bonnie Garmus

116. “Did you see that?” the coxswain shouted angrily at his crew. “Did you see how she gets length without overreaching?”

— Bonnie Garmus

117. “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

118. “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

119. “Naked and the Dead.”

— Bonnie Garmus

120. “I’ve never understood why when women marry, they’re expected to trade in their old names like used cars, losing their last and sometimes even their first – Mrs. John Adams! Mrs. Abe Lincoln! – as if their previous identities had just been twenty-odd-year placeholders before they became actual people. Mrs. Peter Dickman. It’s a life sentence.”

— Bonnie Garmus

121. “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

122. “But she had learned that underemployment was worse. Not only did her paycheck reflect her lowly status, but her brain hurt from inactivity. And yet despite the fact that her colleagues knew she could run intellectual circles around them, she was expected to rah-rah whatever minor accomplishments they churned out.”

— Bonnie Garmus

123. “Whenever you start doubting yourself, whenever you feel afraid, just remember. Courage is the root of change and change is what we’re chemically designed to do.”

— Bonnie Garmus

124. “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

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

— Bonnie Garmus

126. “I’m an atheist, Mr. Roth,” she said, sighing heavily. “Actually, a humanist. But I have to admit, some days the human race makes me sick.”

— Bonnie Garmus

127. “But that was before Elizabeth – before he realized that making her happy made him happy. Which, he thought, as he grabbed his tennis shoes, had to be the very definition of love. To actually want to change for someone else.”

— Bonnie Garmus

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

— Bonnie Garmus

129. “After she left, Calvin clasped his hands together in a silent fit of glee and flipped on the hi-fi, dropping the needle on “Sunny Side of the Street.” For a second time, he’d saved the person he loved the most, and the best part was, she didn’t know.”

— Bonnie Garmus

130. “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

131. “His wife had recently left him, saying that he didn’t respect her job as a housewife and mother. But being a housewife and mother wasn’t really a job, was it? More like a role. Anyway, she was gone.”

— Bonnie Garmus

132. “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

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

— Bonnie Garmus

134. “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

135. “One thing I’ve learned, Calvin: people will always yearn for a simple solution to their complicated problems. 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.” She sighed. “One’s self, I mean.”

— Bonnie Garmus

136. “Bridesmaids’ dresses are designed to make the women in them look unappealing; that way the bride looks better than usual. It’s an accepted practice, a basic defensive strategy with biological roots. You see this sort of thing in nature all the time.”

— Bonnie Garmus

137. “Challenge yourself lades. Use the laws of chemistry and change the status quo.”

— Bonnie Garmus

138. “What I find interesting about rowing,” Dr. Mason was saying, “is that it’s always done backwards. It’s almost as if the sport itself is trying to teach us not to get ahead of ourselves.”

— Bonnie Garmus

139. “The librarian is the most important educator in school. What she doesn’t know, she can find out. This is not an opinion; it’s a fact.”

— Bonnie Garmus

140. “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. 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.”

— Bonnie Garmus

141. “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

142. “When it came to equality, 1952 was a real disappointment. “You have to apologize to.”

— Bonnie Garmus

143. “It is not an exaggeration to say that when Elizabeth Zott finished cooking, an entire nation sat down to eat.”

— Bonnie Garmus

144. “Blindside,” Wilson repeated. “You know. Like the way you blindsided us by misappropriating Parker Foundation funds. Or the way you blindsided Miss Zott – or should I say Mr. Zott? – when you stole her work.”

— Bonnie Garmus

145. “You and Evans rowed in my eight a few times – do you remember? About seven months ago. Good rows, too. But then you never came back. Why was that?” She looked at him, surprised. “Oh, forgive me,” Dr. Mason said in a rush. “I’m so sorry. Of course. Evans. Evans died. I apologize.”

— Bonnie Garmus

146. “God was big on burdens, and He made sure everyone got one.”

— Bonnie Garmus

147. “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

148. “Elizabeth’s eyes narrowed. She did not care for people who made assumptions based on what she felt were long-outdated visual clues, and she also didn’t care for men who believed, even if she had been a secretary, that being a secretary meant she was incapable of understanding words beyond.”

— Bonnie Garmus

149. “Because while musical prodigies are always celebrated, early readers aren’t.”

— Bonnie Garmus

150. “Pregnancy is a normal condition. It is not disgraceful. It is how every human being starts.” “How dare you,” he said, his voice rising. “A woman telling me what pregnancy is. Who do you think you are?” She seemed surprised by the question. “A woman,” she said.”

— Bonnie Garmus