Phyllis Bottome Quotes - Page 3

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.

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.

There is no thermometer for wants!

If money had been the way to save the world, Christ himself would have been rich.

A desire that has never been fulfilled is considerably less acute than one that has been fulfilled and then checked at the source.

A red-hot belief in eternal glory is probably the best antidote to human panic that there is.

... a woman who has been a nun is never anything else.

In my early life, and probably even today, it is not sufficiently understood that a child's education should include at least a rudimentary grasp of religion, sex, and money. Without a basic knowledge of these three primary facts in a normal human being's life --subjects which stir the emotions, create events and opportunities, and if they do not wholly decide must greatly influence an individual's personality --no human being's education can have a safe foundation.

... what most people tell you a confidence for is to get something off their chest which hasn't really been on it. They don't necessarily want to hide the truth from you, but they're out to hide it from themselves

... most people are dead, and none of them seem to mind it. One hears a great many complaints about life, doesn't one? And there are people I know who would certainly grumble -- however dead they were -- if there were anything to grumble at.

Neither saints nor angels have ever increased my faith in this enigma Life; but what are called 'common men and women' have increased it.

... not being liked has a certain virtue about it, if the reason for the dislike does not lie in yourself!

... can life be made undignified by any act of man?

... the ears of the hunted grow even keener than a hunter's.

Love comes into your being like a tidal wave ... sometimes it withdraws like a wave, till there isn't such a thing as a pool left, and every bit of your heart is as dry as seaweed beyond the wave's reach.

To be in the right is often an expensive business.

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?

Life was a series of messes, and one spent one's time cleaning them up; if one had any heart at all one also gave a part of one's time to cleaning up those of other people.

Truth is no man's slave - but lies - what magnificent servants they make.

Nobody can afford to appear more pleasant than they really are!

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!

Poets, when they write of love, give themselves and everyone else away!

it must depend as much upon the patient's willingness to be cured, as upon the physician's skill in curing. There is neither force not magic in psychiatry.

A refugee is as helpless as a new born child - but not so appealing! Besides, a new born child has no memories!

Lots of men hate women now-a-days. ... It was a man-made world, and now we're asking to go shares in the making.