Dodie Smith Quotes

The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.

I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring.

Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.

He 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.

Time takes the ugliness and horror out of death and turns it into beauty.

It came to me that Hyde Park has never belonged to London - that it has always been , in spirit, a stretch of countryside; and that it links the Londons of all periods together most magically - by remaining forever unchanged at the heart of a ever-changing town.

What is it about the English countryside — why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?

When 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.

Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing.

Ham with mustard is a meal of glory

It's a beautiful sight to see good dancers doing simple steps. It's a painful sight to see beginners doing complicated patterns.

But 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.

Like many other much-loved humans, they believed that they owned their dogs, instead of realizing that their dogs owned them.

I suppose the best kind of spring morning is the best weather God has to offer.

Stew's so comforting on a rainy day.

I shouldn't think even millionaires could eat anything nicer than new bread and real butter and honey for tea.

I like seeing people when they can't see me.

Why is summer mist romantic and autumn mist just sad?

a loss of sensibility follows a loss of innocence, at once a penalty and a compensation.

Though he had very little Latin beyond "Cave canem," he had, as a young dog, devoured Shakespeare (in a tasty leather binding).

extreme happiness invites religion almost as much as extreme misery.

I believe it is customary to get one's washing over first in baths and bask afterwards; personally, I bask first. I have discovered that the first few minutes are the best and not to be wasted-- my brain always seethes with ideas and life suddenly looks much better than did.

And no bathroom on earth will make up for marrying a bearded man you hate.

When things mean a very great deal to you, exciting anticipation just isn't safe.

Perhaps if I make myself write I shall find out what is wrong with me.

I am a restlessness inside a stillness inside a restlessness.

They call them the haunted shores, these stretches of Devonshire and Cornwall and Ireland which rear up against the westward ocean. Mists gather here, and sea fog, and eerie stories. That's not because there are more ghosts here than in other places, mind you. It's just that people who live hereabouts are strangely aware of them.

Certain 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.

Walking down Belmotte was the oddest sensation-- every step took us deeper into the mist until at last it closed over our heads. It was like being drowned in the ghost of water.

Perhaps watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can.

I only want to write. And there's no college for that except life.

People's clothes ought to be buried with them.

Everything in the least connected with him has value for me; if someone even mentions his name it is like a little present to me-and I long to mention it myself

Topaz was wonderfully patient - but sometimes I wonder if it is not only patience, but also a faint resemblance to cows.

Still, looking through the old volumes was soothing, because thinking of the past made the present seem a little less real.

It is rather exciting to write by moonlight.

I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.

What a tiny list of friends I have! All my fault. I less and less want to see people.

There was a wonderful atmosphere of gentle age, a smell of flowers and beeswax, sweet yet faintly sour and musty; a smell that makes you feel very tender towards the past.

Perhaps it would really be rather dull to be married and settled for life. Liar! It would be heaven.

Well, my paper has asked me to do a series: Lives of the Great Musicians, reading time 2 minutes.

Oh, it is wonderful to wake up in the morning with things to look forward to!

Oh, wise young judge.

Cruel blows of fate call for extreme kindness in the family circle.

...surely I could give him--a sort of contentment... That isn't enough to give. Not for the giver.

Prayer's a very tricky business.

He laughed a little, in an odd, nervous kind of way. "Because if I don't get going soon, the whole impetus may die--and if that happens, well, I really shall consider a long, restful plunge into insanity. Sometimes the abyss yawns very attractively.

So many of the loveliest things in England are melancholy.

The tea was a comfort - and by that time I more than needed comfort.

I know all about the facts of life, and I don't think much of them.