# Quote — Nicholas Sparks, The Longest Ride

> I was not meant to be alone. I am not good at it. The years since Ruth's passing have ticked by with the kind of desparate silence known only to the elderly. It is a silence underscored by loneliness and the knowledge that the good years are already in the past, coupled with the complications of old age itself.The body is not meant to survive nearly a century. I speak from experience when I say this...

- Author: [Nicholas Sparks](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks.md)
- Book: [The Longest Ride](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-longest-ride.md)
- Page: 320
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nicholas_Sparks#The_Longest_Ride_(2013)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-longest-ride/i-was-not

## More from this book

> A truth emerges in any long marriage, and the truth is this: Our spouses sometimes know us better than we even know ourselves.

p. 325 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-longest-ride/a-truth-emerges.md)

> [Written on back of photograph of Ruth and Daniel]
>
> "Ruth LevinsonThird grade teacher.She believes in me and I can be anything I want when I grow up.I can even change the world."

p. 335 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-longest-ride/written-on-back.md)

> "I wish I had the talent to paint the way I feel about you, for my words always feel inadequate. I imagine using red for your passion and pale blue for your kindness; forest green to reflect the depth of your empathy and bright yellow for your unflagging optimism. And still I wonder: can even an artist's palette capture the full range of what you mean to me?"

p. 326 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/nicholas-sparks/the-longest-ride/i-wish-i-had.md)