The Secret Mandarin Quotes

“I thought of myself mixing the fragrance of a certain day – the heavy musk of the hillside after the rain with the lightness of fresh blossoms doused in the downpour. I thought of each little bottle as the essence of a happy day or a sad one. I mixed the scent of a lonely moment – sandalwood and bergamot lingering over a rich, peppery base.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“I had loved poetry and the theatre. Now I loved adventure more.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“Such a night cannot be shaken from a woman’s memory. Such a night changes your life forever.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“Our children make us so vulnerable. Our parents too, I suppose.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“The bonds between a family are strange indeed.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“I would rather be a spinster than sold off, traded in, whatever they may call it.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“Those who have not been stung will hardly fear a bee the same as those who have.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“I have always been a night owl rather than a lark.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“We are home to each other now.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“At length, when I considered it, I realized that the best of my actions were small things. Picking flowers and cooking food for my mother when she had been unwell, spending an afternoon with the children, sending money to my sister or kissing Henry’s tiny head as he slept in the nursery before I left. I thought of every detail and afterwards I felt better. Hellfire and brimstone have never appealed to me and I admit I become easily confused thinking of right and wrong. But I do understand kindness.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“It seemed to me that these months of watching and listening, second-guessing words and phrases, seeking so much that was new, had somehow changed me.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“What was it that marked me as a woman and was I prepared to let it go?”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“It occurred to me that as a man I could do anything, everything I wanted.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“Women the world over suffer restrictions.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“If you tempted a poor man with a fortune, who could blame the fellow for taking what he could?”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“People who inspire such contradictory emotions must be worthwhile, I reasoned.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“It is strange that what seems at first alien becomes second nature in the blink of an eye.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“ I am torn between the freedom of this adventure and the benefits of civilization despite its constraints.”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“We might give her presents, tell some tales, but would she ever be able to really understand what the journey had been like for us?”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin

“I had never done anything yet that was conventional – why should the love of my life be any different?”
― Sara Sheridan, The Secret Mandarin