Variant: If we'd never met, I think I would have known my life wasn't complete. And I would have wandered the world in search of you, even if I didn't know who I was looking for.
Source: The Longest Ride

“I lead a simple life now, I am foolish, an old man in love, a dreamer who dreams of nothing but reading to Allie and holding her whenever I can. I am a sinner with many faults and a man who believes in magic, but I am too old to change and too old to care.”

Nicholas Sparks

Duke, Winter for Two, p. 212
1990s, The Notebook (1996)

“…The greater the love, the greater the tragedy when it's over. Those two elements always go together. … The best we can hope for in life is that it doesn't happen for a long, long time.”

Nicholas Sparks

Adrienne Willis, Chapter 14, p. 152
2000s, Nights in Rodanthe (2002)

“Mitch…was the kind of man who added something to everything he touched and everyone he came in contact with. I was envious of his view on life. He saw it all as a big game, where the only way to win was to be good to other people, to be able to look at yourself in the mirror and like what you see.”

Nicholas Sparks

Taylor McAden, Chapter 25, p. 300
2000s, The Rescue (2000)

“…when two people live together, the stress flows both ways. This, I come to believe, is both the blessing and the curse of marriage. It's a blessing because there's an outlet for the everyday strains of life; it's a curse because the outlet is someone you care deeply about.”

Nicholas Sparks

Wilson Lewis, Prologue, p. 3
2000s, The Wedding (2003)

“Well, then I'd say it takes two to tango. My guess is that both of you are right and both of you are wrong. That's the way most arguments go, anyway. People are who they are and no one is perfect, but marriage is about becoming a team. You're going to spend the rest of your life learning about each other, and every now and then, things blow up. But the beauty of marriage is that if you picked the right person and you both love each other, you'll alway figure out a way to get through it.”

Nicholas Sparks

Jeremy's father, Chapter 11, p. 148
2000s, At First Sight (2005)

“It was a life, she eventually concluded, that had been lived in the middle ground, where contentment and love were found in the smallest details of people's lives. It was a life of dignity and honor, not without sorrows yet fulfilling in a way that few experiences ever were. She knew Tuck understood that more than anyone.”

Nicholas Sparks

Amanda Collier Ridley, Chapter 2, p. 35
2009, The Best of Me (2011)

“Katie eventually realizes that she must choose between a life of transient safety and one of riskier rewards…and that in the darkest hour, love is the only true safe haven.”

Nicholas Sparks

Back jacket flap
2009, Safe Haven (2010)

“You have to understand that I'm not the girl I used to be. I'm a wife and a mother now, and like everyone else I'm not perfect. I struggle with the choices I've made and I make mistakes, and half the time I wonder who I really am or what I'm doing or whether my life means anything at all. I'm not special at all, Dawson, and you need to know that. You have to understand that I'm just…ordinary.”

Nicholas Sparks

Amanda Collier Ridley, Chapter 11, p. 171
2009, The Best of Me (2011)

“…having children changes your life like nothing else. It'll be the hardest and best thing you've ever done.”

Nicholas Sparks

Doris, Chapter 19, p. 247
2000s, At First Sight (2005)

“…suddenly certain that what he was doing now was the sole reason he'd been placed on this earth. To love another. To care for someone else, to help another person, to carry her worries until she was strong enough to carry them on her own. To care for someone unconditionally, for in the end that was what gave life meaning.”

Nicholas Sparks

Jeremy Marsh, Chapter 20, p. 263
2000s, At First Sight (2005)

“Thinking back, he recalled events he wished he could change, tears he wished had never been shed, time that could have been better spent, and frustrations he should have shrugged off. Life, it seemed, was full of regret, and he yearned to turn back the clock so he could live parts of his live over again. One thing was certain: He should have been a better husband.”

Nicholas Sparks

Travis Parker, Chapter 15, p. 192
2000s, The Choice (2007)

“He loved his wife but hated what life with her had become, cursing himself for even thinking this way.”

Nicholas Sparks

Travis Parker, Chapter 16, p. 228
2000s, The Choice (2007)

“But trust me when I say that memories are funny things. Sometimes they're real, but other times they change into what we want them to be… But like I said, she's hurting, and if there's one thing I've learned, it's that people in pain don't always see things as clearly as they should… And if it somehow doesn't work out between you, then you've got to understand that you can't look back anymore. It'll destroy you in the end, and destroy her as well. Neither one of you can keep living with regret, because it drains the life right out of you, and the very idea is enough to break my heart.”

Nicholas Sparks

Tuck Hostetler, Chapter 15, p. 218-219
2009, The Best of Me (2011)

“While she was exceptional, I was average, a man whose major accomplishment in life was to love her without reservation, and that would never change.”

Nicholas Sparks

Ira Levinson, Chapter 14 Ira, p. 187
2009, The Longest Ride (2013)