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Katherine Mansfield Quotes
1888–1923 New Zealand
Katherine Mansfield Murry (14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923), born Katherine Mansfield Beauchamp, was a New Zealand poet and writer of short fiction, who wrote under the name Katherine Mansfield.
New Zealand Authors Poets Short story writers Also known as: Katherine Mansfield Beauchamp, Mansfield, Katherine
Random Katherine Mansfield quote
29 quotes
When I say "I fear" — don't let it disturb you, dearest heart. We all fear when we are in waiting-rooms. Yet we must pass beyond them, and if the other can keep calm, it is all the help we can give each other.
Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different. Life would undergo a change of appearance because we ourselves had undergone a change of attitude.
If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms from toadstools. With mushrooms it is so simple — you salt them well, put them aside and have patience. But with love, you have no sooner lighted on anything that bears even the remotest resemblance to it than you are perfectly certain it is not only a genuine specimen, but perhaps the only genuine mushroom ungathered.
This all sounds very strenuous and serious. But now that I have wrestled with it, it's no longer so. I feel happy — deep down. May you be happy too. I'm going to Fontainebleau on Monday and I'll be back here Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. All is well.
It's an infernal nuisance to love Life as I do. I seem to love it more as time goes on rather than less. It never becomes a habit to me. It's always a marvel. I do hope I'll be able to keep in it long enough to do some really good work. I'm sick of people dying who promise well.
Letter to John Middleton Murry (3 December 1920), from The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield, vol. IV
Once we have learned to read, the meaning of words can somehow register without consciousness.
Misattributed
The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your actions will be.
Misattributed
Sally Poplin, as quoted in An Uncommon Scold (1989) by Abby Adams, p. 170
Misattributed
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