I advise nobody to drown sorrow in cocoa. It is bad for the figure and it does not alleviate the sorrow. Winifred Holtby More Quotes by Winifred Holtby More Quotes From Winifred Holtby Why, why, when one writes, does a sort of shackle bind one's imagination? I become conscious of a deadening mediocrity, perhaps a form of mental cowardice, and I long to break free, to let my imagination take wings. It doesn't - yet. Winifred Holtby writing wings long the damned book I am writing is like the driveling of a weak-kneed sea calf. If I were sufficiently strong minded, I should tear it up an start again. But I don't. Winifred Holtby strong writing book Sorrow and frustration have their power. The world is moved by people with great discontents. Happiness is a drug. It can make men blind and deaf and insensible to reality. There are times when only sorrow can give to sorrow. Winifred Holtby frustration happiness reality Life flows on over death as water closes over a stone dropped into a pool. ... Fate is certain; death is certain; but the courage and nobility of men and women matter more than these. Winifred Holtby life-and-death fate men no truth is strong enough to defeat a well-established legend. Winifred Holtby legends defeat strong I would, if I could, always feed to music. The singularly graceless action of thus filling one's body with roots and dead animals and powdered grain is given some significance then. One can perform as a ritual what one is shamed to do as a utilitarian action. Winifred Holtby body roots animal we are so little, so ignorant, so feeble an infant race crawling on a planet between immensities we haven't even begun to understand, that really we have no grounds for either congratulation or despair. Winifred Holtby ignorant congratulations race Everybody's tragedy is somebody's nuisance. Winifred Holtby nuisance tragedy The greatest mercy, I have often thought, of the Mediterranean coast lies in its mosquitoes. Did we not suffer from their unwelcome attention, we could not bear our holidays to end. Winifred Holtby holiday lying travel Most gay, conversational, careless, lovely city ... where one drinks golden Tokay until one feels most beautiful, and warm and loved - oh, Budapesth! Winifred Holtby gay europe beautiful Those who prepare for war get it. Winifred Holtby war If you are rich, you have lovely cars, and jars full of flowers, and books in rows, and a wireless, and the best sort of gramophone and meringues for supper. Winifred Holtby car flower book What with the reviews of critics, the sarcasms of one's friends, the reproaches of one's own taste, there's precious little peace after publishing a book. Winifred Holtby sarcasm littles book But to write - that is grief and labor; and to read what one has written - how unlike the story as one saw it; how dull, how spirtless - that is enough to send one weeping to bed. Winifred Holtby bed grief writing Progress? It ought to be stopped, that's what I say. If the Lord meant chickens to come out of incubators he'd never have made hens, it stands to reason. Winifred Holtby hens progress change public work brings a vicarious but assured sense of immortality. We may be poor, weak, timid, in debt to our landlady, bullied by our nieces, stiff in the joints, shortsighted and distressed; we shall perish, but the cause endures; the cause is great. Winifred Holtby debt niece may If we haven't a grouch against Fortune, we seem unable to avoid one against ourselves. Winifred Holtby grouches havens fortune What a strange distance there is between ill people and well ones. Winifred Holtby distance strange people I like a bit of color myself, I must say. At my time of life, if you wear nothing but black, people might think you were too mean to change frocks between funerals. Winifred Holtby color mean thinking All adventuring is rash, and all innovations dangerous. But not nearly so dangerous as stagnation and dry rot. From grooves, cliques, clichés and resignation - Good Lord deliver us! Winifred Holtby dry innovation lord
