[Referring to the birds:] Nat listened to the tearing sound of splintering wood, and wondered how many million years of memory were stored in those little brains, behind the stabbing beaks, the piercing eyes, now giving them this instinct to destroy mankind with all the deft precision of machines.

Daphne du Maurier

Categorized in : Memories Animal Eye

But luxury has never appealed to me, I like simple things, books, being alone, or with somebody who understands.

Daphne du Maurier

luxury simple book

Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.

Daphne du Maurier

inner-peace positivity happiness

If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.

Daphne du Maurier

would-be live-in-the-moment memories

Look on each day that comes as a challenge, as a test of courage. The pain will come in waves, some days worse than others, for no apparent reason. Accept the pain. Little by little, you will find new strength, new vision, born of the very pain and loneliness which seem, at first, impossible to master.

Daphne du Maurier

pain loneliness grieving

We are all ghosts of yesterday, and the phantom of tomorrow awaits us alike in sunshine or in shadow, dimly perceived at times, never entirely lost.

Daphne du Maurier

sunshine shadow yesterday

A dreamer, I walked enchanted, and nothing held me back.

Daphne du Maurier

enchanted dreamer

The point is, life has to be endured, and lived. But how to live it is the problem.

Daphne du Maurier

problem

I wish I was a woman of about thirty-six dressed in black satin with a string of pearls.

Daphne du Maurier

pearls black wish

Women want love to be a novel, men a short story.

Daphne du Maurier

women judging stories

I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say.

Daphne du Maurier

time-and-love fever first-love

There is no going back in life. There is no return. No second chance.

Daphne du Maurier

second-chance return chance

How simple life becomes when things like mirrors are forgotten.

Daphne du Maurier

simple-life mirrors simple

Life was a series of greetings and farewells, one was always saying good-bye to something, to someone.

Daphne du Maurier

greetings farewell bye

I wondered why it was that places are so much lovelier when one is alone.

Daphne du Maurier

travel

Those dripping crumpets, I can see them now. Tiny crisp wedges of toast, and piping-hot, flaky scones. Sandwiches of unknown nature, mysteriously flavoured and quite delectable, and that very special gingerbread. Angel cake, that melted in the mouth, and his rather stodgier companion, bursting with peel and raisins. There was enough food there to keep a starving family for a week.

Daphne du Maurier

cake angel special

I wondered how many people there were in the world who suffered, and continued to suffer, because they could not break out from their own web of shyness and reserve, and in their blindness and folly built up a great distorted wall in front of them that hid the truth.

Daphne du Maurier

wall life people

Writing every book is like a purge; at the end of it one is empty ... like a dry shell on the beach, waiting for the tide to come in again.

Daphne du Maurier

writing beach book

Because I want to; because I must; because now and forever more this is where I belong to be.

Daphne du Maurier

want forever

I could not ask forgiveness for something I had not done. As scapegoat, I could only bear the fault.

Daphne du Maurier

faults done bears

Men are simpler than you imagine my sweet child. But what goes on in the twisted, tortuous minds of women would baffle anyone.

Daphne du Maurier

hilarious sweet funny