One could do with a longer year - so much to do, so little done, alas. Rose Macaulay More Quotes by Rose Macaulay More Quotes From Rose Macaulay The superior thing ... was to be late. Lateness showed that serene contempt for the illusion we call time which is so necessary to ensure the respect of others and oneself. Only the servile are punctual. Rose Macaulay latenesspunctualityillusion Life is one long struggle to disinter oneself, to keep one's head above the accumulations, the ever deepening layers of objects ... which attempt to cover one over, steadily, almost irresistibly, like falling snow. Rose Macaulay strugglelongfall God very seldom succeeds. He has very nearly everything against him, of course. Rose Macaulay coursessucceed One should, I think, always give children money, for they will spend it for themselves far more profitably than we can ever spend it for them. Rose Macaulay givingchildrenthinking Why is humanity so excessive in the way it does things? The golden mean seems out of fashion. Rose Macaulay fashionhumanitymean I can think of few things more disastrous than starting a new correspondence with any one. Letters are a burden indeed ... they seem often the last straw that breaks the back ... you should see the piles of those that I must answer that litter and weight my writing table. Rose Macaulay tableswritingthinking Mozart is everyone's tea, pleasing to highbrows, middlebrows and lowbrows alike, though they probably all get different kinds of pleasure from him. Rose Macaulay musicdifferenttea Parents are untamed, excessive, potentially troublesome creatures; charming to be with for a time, in the main they must lead their own lives, independent and self-employed, with companions of their own age and selection. Rose Macaulay independentparentself If words are to change their meanings, as assuredly they are, let each user of language make such changes as please himself, put up his own suggestions, and let the best win. Rose Macaulay suggestionslanguagewinning The very utterness of the crash and ruin, the desperation of the case, might be its hope. On ruins one can begin to build. Anyhow, looking out from ruins one clearly sees; there are no obstructing walls. Rose Macaulay wallchallengesmight Take my camel, dear,' said my aunt Dot, climbing down from that animal on her return from high Mass. Rose Macaulay auntclimbinganimal As to the family, I have never understood how that fits in with the other ideals --or, indeed, why it should be an ideal at all. A group of closely related persons living under one roof; it is a convenience, often a necessity, sometimes a pleasure, sometimes the reverse; but who first exalted it as admirable, an almost religious ideal? Rose Macaulay groupsreligiousfirsts Age has extremely little to do with anything that matters. The difference between one age and another is, as a rule, enormously exaggerated. Rose Macaulay nursingdifferencesage Many persons read and like fiction. It does not tax the intelligence and the intelligence of most of us can so ill afford taxation that we rightly welcome any reading matter which avoids this. Rose Macaulay readingdoefiction You should always believe what you read in the newspapers, for that makes them more interesting. Rose Macaulay womenreadingbelieve Each wrong act brings with it its own anesthetic, dulling the conscience and blinding it against further light, and sometimes for years. Rose Macaulay lightsometimesyears Women have one great advantage over men. It is commonly thought that if they marry they have done enough, and need career no further. If a man marries, on the other hand, public opinion is all against him if he takes this view. Rose Macaulay relationshipmenhands They... threw themselves into the interests of the rest, but each plowed his or her own furrow. Their thoughts, their little passions and hopes and desires, all ran along separate lines. Family life is like this - animated, but collateral. Rose Macaulay life-is-likepassionfamily Once learnt, this business of cooking was to prove an ever growing burden. It scarcely bears thinking about, the time and labour that man and womankind has devoted to the preparation of dishes that are to melt and vanish in a moment like smoke or a dream, like a shadow, and as a post that hastes by, and the air closes behind them, afterwards no sign where they went is to be found. Rose Macaulay dreammenthinking Nothing, perhaps, is strange, once you have accepted life itself, the great strange business which includes all lesser strangeness. Rose Macaulay strangenessacceptedstrange
