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Quotes from The Story of an African Farm — Olive Schreiner

1855–1920 South Africa

← All quotes by Olive Schreiner

18 quotes

It is delightful to be a woman; but every man thanks the Lord devoutly that he isn’t one.

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

“On the path to truth, at every step, you set your foot down on your own heart.”

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

Marriage for love is the beautifulest external symbol of the union of souls, marriage without it is the uncleanliest traffic that defiles the world.

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

We have been so blinded by thinking and feeling that we have never seen the World.

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

“If the bird does like its cage, and does like its sugar and will not leave it, why keep the door so very carefully shut?”

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

“Why hate, and struggle, and fight? Let is be as it would.”

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

And you do not need to. When you are seventeen this Boer-woman will go; you will have this farm and everything that is upon it for your own; but I,’ said Lyndall, ‘will have nothing. I must learn.’”

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

"What need had he of experience? Experience teaches us in a millennium what passion teaches us in an hour."

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

“Experience teaches us in a millennium what passion teaches us in an hour.”

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

“I am a man who believes nothing, hopes nothing, fears nothing, feels nothing. I am beyond the pale of humanity [...]”

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

Men are like the earth and we are the moon; we turn always one side to them, and they think there is no other, because they don't see it—but there is.

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

“I think,' said Lyndall, 'that he is like a thorn-tree, which grows up very quietly, without any one's caring for it, and one day suddenly breaks out into yellow blossoms.”

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

Very tenderly the old man looked at him. He saw not the bloated body nor the evil face of the man; but, as it were, under deep disguise and fleshly concealment, the form that long years of dreaming had made very real to him.

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

This dirty little world full of confusion, and the blue rag, stretched overhead for a sky, is so low we could touch it with our hand.

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

“When the curtain falls no one is ready”

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

“The bees are very attentive to the flowers until their honey is done, and then they fly over them. I don't know if the flowers feel grateful to the bees, they are great fools if they do.”

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

“All things on earth have their price, and for truth we pay the dearest. We barter it for love and sympathy. The road to honour is paved with thorns; but on the path to truth, at every step you set your foot down on your heart.”

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

“I am not in so great a hurry to put my neck beneath any man's foot; and I do not so greatly admire the crying of babies”

The Story of an African Farm (1883)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Olive Schreiner (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.