01UndatedPerhaps watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
05UndatedI suddenly knew that religion, God - something beyond everyday life - was there to be found, provided one is really willing. And I saw that though what I felt in the church was only imagination, it was a step on the way; because imagination itself can be a kind of willingness - a pretense that things are real, due to one's longing for them. It struck me that this was somehow tied up with what the Vicar said about religion being an extension of art - and then I had a glimpse of how religion can really cure you of sorrow; somehow make use of it, turn it to beauty, just as art can make sad things beautiful. I found myself saying: 'Sacrifice is the secret - you have to sacrifice things for art and it's the same with religion; and then the sacrifice turns out to be a gain.' Then I got confused and I couldn't hold on to what I meant - until Miss Blossom remarked: 'Nonsense, duckie - it's prefectly simple. You lose yourself in something beyond yourself and it's a lovely rest.'I saw that, all right. Then I thought: 'But that's how Miss Marcy cured her sorrow, too - only she lost herself in other people instead of in religion.' Which way of life was best - hers or the Vicar's? I decided that he loves God and merely likes the villagers, whereas she loves the villagers and merely likes God - and then I suddenly wondered if I could combine both ways, love God and my neighbor equally. Was I really willing to?Dodie Smith / quote ↗
06UndatedJust to be in love seemed the most blissful luxury I had ever known. The thought came to me that perhaps it is the loving that counts, not the being loved in return - that perhaps true loving can never know anything but true happiness.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
07UndatedThinking of death--strange, beautiful, terrible and a long way off--made me feel happier than ever.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
09UndatedI think it [religion] is an art, the greatest one; an extension of the communion all the other arts attempt.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
10UndatedCertain unique books seem to be without forerunners or successors as far as their authors are concerned. Even though they may profoundly influence the work of other writers, for their creator they're complete, not leading anywhere.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
12UndatedMy God - it's a green child!" said the American. "What is this place - the House of Usher?Dodie Smith / quote ↗
13UndatedRose doesn’t like the flat country, but I always did – flat country seems to give the sky such a chance.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
14UndatedHe stood staring into the wood for a minute, then said: "What is it about the English countryside — why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?"He sounded faintly sad. Perhaps he finds beauty saddening — I do myself sometimes. Once when I was quite little I asked father why this was and he explained that it was due to our knowledge of beauty's evanescence, which reminds us that we ourselves shall die. Then he said I was probably too young to understand him; but I understood perfectly.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
15Undated...he talked quite naturally while we ate — about the difficulty of finding words to describe the luminous mist, and why one has the desire to describe beauty."Perhaps it's an attempt to possess it," I said."Or be possessed by it; perhaps that's the same thing, really. I suppose it's the complete identification with beauty one's seeking."The mist grew brighter and brighter.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
16UndatedIn addition, I think religion has a chance of a look-in whenever the mind craves solace in music or poetry-- in any form of art at all. Personally, I think it is an art, the greatest one; an extension of the communication all the other arts attempt.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
17UndatedWhen I read a book, I put in all the imagination I can, so that it is almost like writing the book as well as reading it - or rather, it is like living it. It makes reading so much more exciting, but I don't suppose many people try to do it.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
18UndatedAnd no bathroom on earth will make up for marrying a bearded man you hate.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
19UndatedBut some characters in books are really real--Jane Austen's are; and I know those five Bennets at the opening of Pride and Prejudice, simply waiting to raven the young men at Netherfield Park, are not giving one thought to the real facts of marriage.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
20UndatedThere is something revolting about the way girls' minds so often jump to marriage long before they jump to love.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
21UndatedAm I really admitting that my sister is determined to marry a man she has only seen once and doesn't much like the look of? It is half real and half pretense - and I have an idea that it is a game most girls play when they meet an eligible young men. They just...wonder.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
22Undated... there is something revolting about the way girls' minds so often jump to marriage long before they jump to love. And most of those minds are shut to what marriage really means.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
23UndatedIt isn't a bit of use my pretending I'm not crying, because I am... Pause to mop up. Better now.Perhaps it would really be rather dull to be married and settled for life. Liar! It would be heaven.Dodie Smith / quote ↗
24UndatedI wonder if there isn't a catch about having plenty of money? Does it eventually take the pleasure out of things?Dodie Smith / quote ↗
