39 quotes
Her religion was that of all artists — obedience to the laws of her creative art.
Survival (1943)
Darkness began to drink up the last cold light upon the mountainside.
The Mortal Storm (1938)
I wonder how often not the intention but the desire springs up in a doctor's mind: "Can I let this human being out of the trap of Life?"
Survival (1943)
All persecution is a sign of fear; for if we did not fear the power of an opinion different from our own, we should not mind others holding it.
The Mortal Storm (1938)
When a reserved person once begins to talk, nothing can stop him, and he does not want to have to listen, until he has quite finished his unfamiliar exertion.
Survival (1943)
I am never at picnics. The ground was not meant to be sat upon in its raw state, I feel sure, and I prefer my food without either caterpillars or drafts!
The Mortal Storm (1938)
There is no thermometer for wants!
The Mortal Storm (1938)
"Ought"! What an ugly word that is!
The Mortal Storm (1938)
[H]urt vanity is one of the cruellest of mortal wounds.
The Mortal Storm (1938)
That a Jew is despised or persecuted is bad for him, of course — but far worse for the Christian who does it — for although persecuted he can remain a good Jew — whereas no Christian who persecutes can possibly remain — if he ever was one — a good Christian!
The Mortal Storm (1938)
Truth is its own defence.
The Mortal Storm (1938)
Morale is not a single instinct. It has many ingredients. A sense of personal responsibility, the natural courage of an individual, the amount of his acquired self-discipline — and above all his interest in others — these together make up the spirit of morale.
Survival (1943)
The words her father had said to her, echoed over and over in her memory — "Love generously, wisely, and without haste!" She thought that wisdom was in the simple joy of her lover’s eyes; about generosity Freya did not think at all — for those who practise it never weigh it — but the word "haste" she blotted out of her mind.
The Mortal Storm (1938)
It is you men who make war! ... We, who have children, would never make it! Why should a woman be broken up in pain, to give her child life, only to see him carried away from her, to make food for guns?
The Mortal Storm (1938)
Physical inferiority is always stressed rather than relieved by a militaristic rule; so that it would not surprise me to find that the half of the human race that produces and trains the other half, will be once more degraded! One must not forget that many women will like it better. For one pets what one degrades; and one has to support what one has enfeebled.
The Mortal Storm (1938)
I believe that all daughters, even when most aggravated by their mothers, have a secret respect for them. They believe perhaps that they can do everything better than their mothers can, and many things they can do better, but they have not yet lived long enough to be sure how successfully they will meet the major emergencies of life, which lie, sometimes quite creditably, behind their mothers.
Survival (1943)
Every hen thinks she has laid the best egg! Can we not all believe as we choose? But the choice of others — what is that to us? Let them alone — Nazis and Communists. How do we know that they are not two ways of avoiding the same thing?
The Mortal Storm (1938)
The only creative power I know is that of what might roughly be called "love"; not of course a sentimental love: a far more impersonal and less individual emotion. I sometimes think that migratory birds may have it for each other. They fly in the same direction, and have never been seen to interfere with each other's flights.
Survival (1943)
This death...is not a great affair! Think — it happens once only — to each of us—as birth does. What do you know about being born? That — and no more — will you know about the act of death.
The Mortal Storm (1938)