Myrtle Reed Quotes

Love is an orchid which thrives principally on hot air.

Impermanence is the very essence of joy-the drop of bitterness that enables one to perceive the sweet.

each separate flower has a magic all its own.

I've always thought my flowers had souls.

Silence always gives consent.

When we come to the sundown road, we need all the love we have managed to take with us from the summit of the hill.

A letter has distinct advantages. You can say all you want to say before the other person has a chance to put in a word.

Married and unmarried women waste a great deal of time in feeling sorry for each other.

The things that are ours cannot be given away, or taken away, or lost. We break our hearts, all of us, trying to keep things that do not belong to us — and to which we have no right.

Heart-aches are forgotten, tears lose their bitterness, and like a leaf of lavendar in a store of linen, so does Memory make life sweet.

Three things I have longed to see ... The sea serpent, a white rhinoceros, and an unselfish man.

The only way to win happiness is to give it. The more we give, the more we have.

Silence and reserve will give anyone a reputation for wisdom.

May our house always be too small to hold all of our friends.

The appointed thing comes at the appointed time in the appointed way.

Anger is a better weapon than tears; a burr commands more respect than a sensitive plant.

If we all tried to make other people's paths easy, our own feet would have a smooth even place to walk on.

A real love letter is absolutely ridiculous to everyone except the writer and the recipient.

Lots of people think they're charitable if they give away their old clothes and things they don't want.

Gossip is the social mosquito.

Legislation may at times be disobeyed, but never law, for the breaking brings swift punishment of its own.

Pedestals are always lonely.

In every life there is a perfect moment, like a flash of sun. We can shape our days by that, if we will - before by faith, and afterward by memory.

One of the most interesting things in the world to me is the vast difference between what people say they are going to do, and what they actually do.

When you borrow trouble you give your peace of mind as security.

Did you ever read a love-letter that wasn't an evidence of idiocy - except your own?

But somewhere on the great world the sun is always shining, and, just so sure as you live, it will sometime shine on you.

It saves trouble to be conventional, for you're not always explaining things.

Marriage is the process by which a woman deprives herself of an escort.

Death is the advertisement, at the end of an autobiography, wherein people discover its virtues.

I've just washed my hair and I can't do a thing with it!

One uncongenial guest can ruin a dinner more easily than a poor salad, and that is saying a great deal.

If there's anythin' on earth that can be more tryin' than any kind of relative, I don't know what it is, but relatives by marriage comes first - easy.

The spirit in which one earns his daily bread means as much to his soul as the bread itself may mean to his body.

The body grows by food and work, the mind by use, and the soul through joy and pain.

Love and hate always remember; it is only indifference that forgets.

Content is a matter of temperament rather than circumstance.

Home is a place where we all do as we please - usually regardless of the others.

Those who have been made great have first suffered.

Money may not be your best friend, but it's the quickest to act, and seems to be favorably recognized in more places than most friends are.

A good forgettery is a happier possession than a good memory.

... sometimes, out of bitterness, the years distill forgiveness.

Nothing is bad which does not harm either you or someone else.

... no matter how one's heart aches, one can do the necessary things and do them well.

When we get civilised, I believe children will go by number until they get old enough to choose their own names.

When things hurt us, we're merely on our way to another spiritual environment.

... the song of the world is all of love.

[On marriage:] Someone once said that it was like a crowded church - those outside were endeavouring to get in, and those inside were making violent efforts to get out.

Before, you think of it as a permanent bond of happiness; later, you see that it is a yoke, borne unequally. You marry to keep love, but sometimes that is the surest way to lose it.

Marriage is the cold potato of love.