Top 40 Ruth Hogan Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Common decency, good manners, kindness and hard work were treated as peculiarities.”

— Ruth Hogan

2. “Sometimes, we see what we fear most, instead of what’s really there.”

— Ruth Hogan

3. “Time for the lovely cup of tea.”

— Ruth Hogan

4. “The “scattering of ashes” had always sounded like such an ethereal act to Laura, but in reality, she reflected, it was more akin to emptying a vacuum-cleaner bag.”

— Ruth Hogan

5. “The dream was always the same. Endlessly searching and never finding the one thing that would finally bring him peace.”

— Ruth Hogan

6. “She was desperate to do something to make the creature better; fatter, fitter. Happy. But sometimes not doing anything was what was needed, however hard that might be.”

— Ruth Hogan

7. “Life is full of small joys if you know where to look for them, and the woman’s bright eyes are forever seeking them out and finding them, even in the darkest of times and places.”

— Ruth Hogan

8. “You sneak around in the shadows pretending to be like everyone else, but like it or not, you never will be. What you have can be a blessing or a curse, but the choice is entirely yours. It is what you make of it. You can spend the rest of your life skulking or you can find your swagger.”

— Ruth Hogan

9. “The house was untainted by the tinnitus of technology. There was no computer, no television, no DVD or CD player.”

— Ruth Hogan

10. “A hush is a dangerous thing. Silence is solid and dependable, but a hush is expectant, like a pregnant pause; it invites mischief, like a loose thread begging to be pulled.”

— Ruth Hogan

11. “They ate fish and chips for supper on Fridays, and salmon sandwiches and fruit salad with tinned cream for Sunday tea.”

— Ruth Hogan

12. “In this world, Daisy, we are tiny. We can’t always win and we can’t always be happy. But the one thing that we can always do is try.”

— Ruth Hogan

13. “Could trust be incremental or was it an absolute that, once licked by a flame of deceit, crumbled like paper into ashes?”

— Ruth Hogan

14. “He drank milk and fruit juice straight from the carton, ate with his elbows on the table, held his knife like a pen, and spoke with his mouth full. Each on its own was a small thing, like the many other small things he did and said that Laura tried to ignore, but nonetheless chafed her soul.”

— Ruth Hogan

15. “My parents are, of course, to blame. They taught me to read before I started school, enrolled me at the children’s library and filled my childhood with books, for which I am eternally grateful.”

— Ruth Hogan

16. “If you never get sadness, how do you know what happy is like?” she asked.”

— Ruth Hogan

17. “It was too early for gin and lime, and too hot for tea.”

— Ruth Hogan

18. “Together they were sacrosanct.”

— Ruth Hogan

19. “I know it is likely that most of the things are worthless, and no one will want them back. But if you can make just one person happy, mend one broken heart by restoring to them what they have lost, then it will have all been worthwhile.”

— Ruth Hogan

20. “She wanted excitement; a life less lifeless.”

— Ruth Hogan

21. “Before the ink could dry on her words of excuse, they were smudged with guilt.”

— Ruth Hogan

22. “We can’t always win and we can’t always be happy. But the one thing that we can always do is try. There will always be Baylee-Trashcan Johnsons” – a twitch of a smile crossed Daisy’s face – “ and you can’t change that. But you can change how she makes you feel.”

— Ruth Hogan

23. “Talk to him, not his phone. Find him and tell him to his face.”

— Ruth Hogan

24. “And women with red shoes and green handbags were never to be trusted.”

— Ruth Hogan

25. “Love always matters, no matter how fleeting, how messy, how painful. It always matters.”

— Ruth Hogan

26. “If you never get sadness, how do you know what happy is like?’ she asked. ‘And by the way, everybody dies.”

— Ruth Hogan

27. “And she did love him. Not in the silly, girlish way that she had been infatuated with Vince. This had, for her, grown stealthily into an abiding love, sparked first by passion and then sustained by friendship and trust.”

— Ruth Hogan

28. “You are greater than your fear.”

— Ruth Hogan

29. “Bomber said that the wonderful thing about books was that they were films that played inside your head.”

— Ruth Hogan

30. “He was a comforting constant, like Radio 4, Big Ben and ‘Land of Hope and Glory.”

— Ruth Hogan

31. “Had she become an habitual coward, afraid to climb in case she fell?”

— Ruth Hogan

32. “Nothing wrong doesn’t make him Mr Right.”

— Ruth Hogan

33. “It wasn’t the sunlight that poked fun at Laura’s imperfections, but the darkness with its looming doubts that mocked her in the sleepless spells that broke the night.”

— Ruth Hogan

34. “She understood that everything had a value far greater than money; it had a story, a memory, and most importantly a unique place in the life of Padua.”

— Ruth Hogan

35. “Her grandmother had once told her that one could blame ugliness on one’s genes and ignorance on one’s education, but there was absolutely no excuse whatsoever for being dull.”

— Ruth Hogan

36. “Lilia’s own mother had taught her two things; dress for oneself, and marry for love.”

— Ruth Hogan

37. “Henry. She could never trust a man who shared his name with a vacuum cleaner.”

— Ruth Hogan

38. “Perhaps he had seen her as a challenge. Or a novelty.”

— Ruth Hogan

39. “Swill your mouth out and move on!”

— Ruth Hogan

40. “Laura looked unconvinced, but Sunshine had a point to make. “If you never get sadness, how do you know what happy is like?” she asked. “And by the way, everybody dies.” “I think she has you in checkmate there,” Freddy murmured. Laura conceded defeat with a reluctant smile.”

— Ruth Hogan

41. “The secrets she had been trusted to keep, the confessions she had heard, the pasts she had revealed and the futures she had foretold returned, not so much as memories, but rather they seeped from the dark, draped walls of the booth and swirled around her and through her like ghosts. They were a part of her that she could never fully escape.”

— Ruth Hogan