In the garden the door is always open into the "holy" - growth, birth, death. Every flower holds the whole mystery in its short cycle, and in the garden we are never far away from death, the fertilizing, good, creative death. May Sarton More Quotes by May Sarton More Quotes From May Sarton The tragic thing about learning from experience is I fear that one can only learn from one's own experience. Other people's - other nations' - experiences simply do not help. They can be imaginatively learned from. But people do not act on other people's experiences. May Sarton experiencehelpingpeople letters are so much easier than living. One can give one's best. May Sarton easierlettersgiving A man with a talent does what is expected of him, makes his way, constructs, is an engineer, a composer, a builder of bridges. It's the natural order of things that he construct objects outside himself and his family. The woman who does so is aberrant. We have to expiate for this cursed talent someone handed out to us, by mistake, in the black mystery of genetics. May Sarton mistakemenorder How much hope, expectation, and sheer hard work goes into the smallest success! There is no being sure of anything except that whatever has been created will change in time. May Sarton smallesthard-workexpectations Does one come to enjoy even the hardships that help make one the person one is? Or is it that the past becomes a legend to be remembered with laughter? May Sarton laughterdoepast It is dangerous it seems to me for a civilization when there is a complete abyss betewen people in general and the artists. Or is it always so? The poets who are most ardently on the people's side write in such a way that the people cannot see rhyme nor reason to their work. May Sarton artistwritingcivilization If art is not to be life-enhancing, what is it to be? May Sarton art-isifsart Deep down there was understanding, not of the facts of our lives so much as of our essential natures. May Sarton essentialsunderstandingfacts When we speak of being vulnerable, it suggests being especially vulnerable to pain. People for whom personal dignity and self-sufficiency are everything, do all they can to shut it out. Noli mi tangere. They are well aware that any intimate relationship has pain in it, forces a special kind of awareness, is costly, and so they try to keep themselves unencumbered by shutting pain out as far as it is possible to do so. May Sarton painintimate-relationshipsself True gardeners cannot bear a glove Between the sure touch and the tender root. May Sarton glovesgardenroots Time unbounded is hard to handle. May Sarton hard-to-handlehardhandle When addressed, a Gentleman Cat does not move a muscle. He looks as if he hasn't heard. May Sarton catgentlemanmoving A holiday gives one a chance to look backward and forward; to reset oneself by an inner compass. May Sarton environmentalholidaygiving Fighting dragons is my holy joy. May Sarton dragonsfightingjoy It feels a long way up and down from zero. May Sarton zerolongway So let the world go, but hold fast to joy. May Sarton hold-fastjoyworld “How does one grow up?” I asked a friend the other day. There was a slight pause; then she answered, “By thinking.” May Sarton growing-upmaturitythinking Life comes in clusters, clusters of solitude, then a cluster when there is hardly time to breathe. May Sarton breathesolitudelife Old age is not an illness, it is a timeless ascent. As power diminishes, we grow toward the light. May Sarton ascentlightage I suppose real old age begins when one looks backward rather than forward May Sarton inspirationrealage
