Margaret Deland Quotes

Truth is like heat or light; its vibrations are endless, and are endlessly felt.

Nobody who is somebody looks down on anybody.

As soon as you feel too old to do a thing, do it.

Self-sacrifice which denies common sense is not a virtue. It's a spiritual dissipation.

One must desire something to be alive.

One must desire something to be alive; perhaps absolute satisfaction is only another name for Death.

Convictions do not imply reasons.

I've always thought the law ought to put on spectacles, it has mighty poor eyesight once in a while.

A letter is a risky thing; the writer gambles on the reader's frame of mind.

Nothing may be more selfish than remorse.

I have heard that a man might be his own lawyer, but you can't be your own judge.

A pint can't hold a quart - if it holds a pint it is doing all that can be expected of it.

You can't have genius without patience.

moral vanity is the snare of good people.

Conscience that isn't hitched up to common sense is a mighty dangerous thing.

Books are like sapphires; they must be polished - polished! or else you insult your readers.

men love their wives not because of their virtues, but in spite of them.

We've all of us got to meet the devil alone. Temptation is a lonely business.

Every new truth begins in a shocking heresy.

it's better to be crazy on one point and happy, than sane on all points and unhappy.

a short cut to matrimonial unhappiness is not to have the same taste in jokes!

A sneer is like a flame; it may occasionally be curative because it cauterizes, but it leaves a bitter scar.

There is no embarrassment quite like the embarrassment of listening to a person for whom one has a regard making a fool of himself.

nothing is as conventional as adolescence.

... if a man really and truly believed that black was white, you might advise him to see an oculist, but you mustn't call him a liar.

there couldn't be war, unless lies were believed. War has to be nourished by lies.

... Love never forgets; or if it does, it is an imperfect love, like the beautiful love of a dog, faithful and unreasoning.

Age, with shamefaced relief, has learned the solvent quality of Time. It is this quality which makes possible the contemplation of certain embarrassing heavenly reunions.

... safety that depends on an apron-string is very unsafe!

... in a wicked way, it is an incentive to good living to observe the spice of enjoyment there is to a godly soul in a very little sin.

Weakness is a great bully without knowing it.

silence is very moving to youth, for who knows what it hides?

gossip, after it reaches a certain point of insult and falsehood, becomes a source of amusement to its victims.

faith, it seems to me, is not the holding of certain dogmas; it is simply openness and readiness of heart to believe any truth which God may show.

When two duties jostle each other, one of 'em isn't a duty.

the blue and cloudless day closes like the lid of a casket of jewels upon the violet rim of sea, and shuts out the light.

There's one thing that always interests me about you good people, not your certainty that the rest of us are swine, - no doubt we are, - but your certainty that your opinions are pearls.

To talk over a quarrel, with its inevitable accompaniment of self-justification, is too much like handling cobwebs to be very successful.

If you give way to fear, you'll be a coward; and ... a coward is apt to be a liar. The devil's first name is Fear.

Habit does much to reconcile us to unpleasantness.

the attempt to break a habit of years is necessarily experimental.

In connection with death, or birth, or love, modesty is only a rather puerile self-consciousness.

I notice that when people have no sense of responsibility, you call them either criminals or geniuses.

Grief is the price Love pays for being in the same world with Death.

I have no faith in a human critter who hasn't one or two bad habits.

Some time in our lives every man and woman of us, putting out our hands toward the stars, touch on either side our prison walls the immutable limitations of temperament

When it comes to bombshells, there are few that can be more effective than that small, flat, frail thing, a letter.

Lawyers make their cake by cooking up other people's troubles.

there are few things that are more endearing than the grace of listening with attention; indeed, it is more than endearing, it is impressive - for no one knows what wisdom lies concealed in silence!

a manufactured interest has no staying quality - especially if it involves any hard work.