[In old age] there is a childlike innocence, often, that has nothing to do with the childishness of senility. The moments become precious . . . May Sarton More Quotes by May Sarton More Quotes From May Sarton It always comes back to the same necessity: go deep enough and there is a bedrock of truth, however hard. May Sarton truth enough inspirational It is harder for women, perhaps to be 'one-pointed,' much harder for them to clear space around whatever it is they want to do beyond household chores and family life. Their lives are fragmented... the cry not so much for a 'a room of one's own' as time of one's own. Conflict become acute, whatever it may be about, when there is no margin left on any day in which to try at least to resolve it. May Sarton space may trying A house that does not have one warm, comfy chair in it is soulless. May Sarton house doe home The more articulate one is, the more dangerous words become. May Sarton dangerous danger No partner in a love relationship... should feel that he has to give up an essential part of himself to make it viable. May Sarton giving-up love relationship Public education was not founded to give society what it wants. Quite the opposite. May Sarton opposites want giving Here life goes on, even and monotonous on the surface, full of lightning, of summits and of despair, in its depths. We have now arrived at a stage in life so rich in new perceptions that cannot be transmitted to those at another stage - one feels at the same time full of so much gentleness and so much despair - the enigma of this life grows, grows, drowns one and crushes one, then all of a sudden in a supreme moment of light one becomes aware of the sacred. May Sarton crush perception light We have to make myths of our lives, the point being that if we do, then every grief or inexplicable seizure by weather, woe, or work can-if we discipline ourselves and think hard enough-be turned to account, be made to yield further insight into what it is to be alive, to be a human being. May Sarton grief writing thinking Absence becomes the greatest Presence. May Sarton absence What frightens me about America today is that in the large majority there is no active sense of the value of the individual: few citizens feel that they are the Republic, responsible for what happens. And when the individual in a democracy ceases to feel his importance, then there is grave danger that he will give over his freedom, if not to a Fascist State, then to the advertising men or Publicity Agents or to the newspaper he happens to read. May Sarton giving men america The minute one utters a certainty, the opposite comes to mind. May Sarton minutes mind opposites Flowers and plants are silent presences. They nourish every sense except the ear. May Sarton music flower life ... the reason why there are so few first-class poets is that many people have intense feelings or first-class minds but to get the two together so that you will be willing to put a poem through sixty drafts, to be that self-critical, to keep breaking it down, that is what is rare. Right now most poetry is just self-indulgence. May Sarton self class two When you change the way you look at a thing, the thing itself changes...By mastering feelings, she had come to understand the meaning of discipline and its reward: freedom and power. May Sarton discipline feelings looks One has only to set a loved human being against the fact that we are all in peril all the time to get back a sense of proportion. What does anything matter compared to the reality of love and its span, so brief at best, maintained against such odds? May Sarton odds doe reality I feel more alive when I'm writing than I do at any other time--except maybe when I'm making love. May Sarton making-love alive writing I suppose one has to remember that 'life' is important too, though it's something I forget in some moods, everything except work seeming like an interruption or really non-life. May Sarton important forget remember Try making a poem as if it were a table, clear and solid, standing there outside you. May Sarton clear tables trying I am realizing once and for all the difference as far as I am concerned of women and men and the necessity for both. With a man, however tender he is, one is feeding him - one is always and eternally understanding, mothering, supplying him with faith in himself (not in you). May Sarton differences understanding men In poetry compromise is fatal. In action of any cooperative sort it is inevitable. The thing is to find the balance. May Sarton balance compromise action
