Quotes

I have a file and a little book where I write things that catch my eye or that strike a chord with me. I have started posting a quote every month or so, and here I list it as I change it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                           

“Expect a most agreeable letter, for not being overburdened with subject (having nothing at all to say), I shall have no check to my genius from beginning to end.” Jane Austen, in a letter dated Jan 21 1801

“The loss of fortune serves only to increase the pride of the worthy” Oliver Goldsmith, The Vicar of Wakefield

“I used to come from the village with all that dirt and coarse ugliness like a pain within me, and the simpering pictures in the drawing-room seemed to me like a wicked attempt to find delight in what is false, while we don’t mind how hard the truth is for the neighbours outside our walls. I think we have no right to come forward and urge wider changes for good, until we have tried to alter the evils which lie under our own hands.” George Eliot, Middlemarch

“It should always be recollected, that without good provisions the skill of the cook will avail nothing.” Samuel & Sarah Adams, The Complete Servant, 1825

“And I looked up at the stars, and thought about travellers in distant countries and the stars they saw, and hoped I might always be so blest and happy as to be useful to some one in my small way.” Charles Dickens, Bleak House

“What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance.”
Jane Austen, in a letter dated Sept. 18, 1796.

“Whatever comes” she said, “cannot alter one thing. If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside.” Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess

“The love of learning, the sequestered nooks, and all the sweet serenity of books.” Henry W. Longfellow

“It is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-humour.” Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

“Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.” Voltaire

“The only simplicity that is desirable is simplicity of soul, a certain singleness of aim and quiet detachment of vision, a mood of enduring repose not at variance with constant endeavour, a habit of content, contemplation and peace.” Bliss Carman, The friendship of art, 1904

“I know that our inheritance is held in store for us by Time. I know there is a sea of Time to rise one day, before which all who wrong us or opress us will be swept away like leaves.” Charles Dickens, The Chimes

“With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“To sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure, is the most perfect refreshment.”
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

“To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition.” Samuel Johnson

“Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words And never stops at all.” Emily Dickinson

“I want to be above the little meannesses, and follies, and faults that spoil so many women.” L.M. Alcott, Little Women

“What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood, tempered and balanced by knowledge and common sense.” Beatrix Potter

“Look on other lives besides your own. See what their troubles are, and how they are borne. Try to care about something in this vast world besides the gratification of small selfish desires. Try to care for what is best in thought and action-something that is good apart from the accidents of your own lot.” George Eliot, Daniel Deronda.

“A man’s country is where he’s well off.” George Eliot, Daniel Deronda.

“If we have no hope for the future, I do not see how we can look back at the past with pleasure.” William Morris

“Feminism is the radical idea that women are people” As seen on a bumpersticker.¨

“There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, counfounding their enemies and delighting their friends.” Homer, The Odyssey

“A little sea-bathing would set me up forever.” Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice

“Woe to the cook whose sauce has no sting.” Geoffrey Chaucer

“It is settled between us already, that we are to be the happiest couple in the world.” Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice

“Sweet the coming on

Of grateful evening mild.” John Milton, Paradise Lost

“Who wants a pancake, sweet and piping hot? Good little Grace looks up and says, ‘I’ll take the one on top’. Who else wants a pancake, fresh off the griddle? Terrible Teresa smiles and says, ‘I’ll take the one in the middle’.” Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends

“How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower!” Isaac Watts, Against Idleness and Mischief, Divine Songs for Children

“Toujours strawberries and cream.” Samuel Johnson

“I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a single word: Home.” Mahmoud Darwish

Is it robin o’clock?
Is it five after wing?
Is it quarter to leaf?
Is it nearly time for spring?

Is it grass to eleven?
Is it flower to eight?
Is it half-past snowflake?
Do we still have to wait? Eve Merriam, Blackberry Ink

“They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.” Edward Lear, The Owl and the Pussycat 

“I shall give life here my best, and I believe it will give its best to me in return. When I left Queen’s my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend, Marilla. I wonder how the road beyond it goes–what there is of green glory and soft, checkered light and shadows–what new landscapes–what new beauties–what curves and hills and valleys further on.” L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

“If you come at four in the afternoon, I’ll begin to be happy by three.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince