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Shirley Hazzard Quotes - Page 2

All Quotes Tragedy Writing
One would always want to think of oneself as being on the side of love, ready to recognize it and wish it well -but, when confronted with it in others, one so often resented it, questioned its true nature, secretly

One would always want to think of oneself as being on the side of love, ready to recognize it and wish it well -but, when confronted with it in others, one so often resented it, questioned its true nature, secretly dismissed the particular instance as folly or promiscuity. Was it merely jealousy, or a reluctance to admit so noble and enviable a sentiment in anyone but oneself?

Shirley Hazzard
Love, Thinking, Wish

I never had, or wished for, power over you. That isn't true, of course. I wanted the greatest power of all. but not advantage, or authority.

Shirley Hazzard
Over You, Authority, Advantage

The United Nations emerged as a temple of official good intentions, a place where governments might - without abating their transgressions - go to church; a place made remote - by agreed untruth and procedural complexity, and by tedium itself - from the risk of intense public involvement.

Shirley Hazzard
Government, Risk, Church

In England, life is a long process of composing oneself.

Shirley Hazzard
Long, England, Life Is
Shirley Hazzard (2004). “Cliffs of Fall: And Other Stories”, p.66, Macmillan

Madness might sometimes give access to a kind of knowledge. But was not a guarantee.

Shirley Hazzard
Giving, Guarantees, Might

For most people it's easier to support an eminent person in deserved disgrace than an obscure one who has been wronged.

Shirley Hazzard
People, Support, Obscure

When you realize someone is trying to hurt you, it hurts less." "Unless you love them.

Shirley Hazzard
Hurt, Trying, Realizing

A poet or novelist will invent interruptions to avoid long consecutive days at the ordained page; and of these the most pernicious are other kinds of writing -- articles, lectures, reviews, a wide correspondence.

Shirley Hazzard
Writing, Long, Novelists

The sweetness that all longed for night and day. Some tragedy might be idly guessed at-loss or illness. She had the luminosity of those about to die.

Shirley Hazzard
Loss, Night, Tragedy

Perhaps if we lived with less physical beauty we would develop our true natures more.

Shirley Hazzard
Beauty, Physical Beauty, True Nature
Shirley Hazzard (2004). “The Evening of the Holiday: A Novel”, p.112, Macmillan

That was the trouble with experience; it taught you that most people were capable of anything, so that loyalty was never quite on firm ground -- or, rather, became a matter of pardoning offenses instead of denying their existence.

Shirley Hazzard
Loyalty, People, Matter
Shirley Hazzard (2004). “Cliffs of Fall: And Other Stories”, p.175, Macmillan

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