The test of beauty is whether it can survive close knowledge. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings More Quotes by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings More Quotes From Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings A woman has got to love a bad man once or twice in her life, to be thankful for a good one. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings lovelifefunny Who owns Cross Creek? The red-birds, I think, more than I, for they will have their nests even in the face of delinquent mortgages..It seems to me that the earth may be borrowed, but not bought. It may be used, but not owned. It gives itself in response to love and tending, offers its sesonal flowering and fruiting. But we are tenants and not possessors, lovers, and not masters. Cross Creek belongs to the wind and the rain, to the sun and the seasons, to the cosmic secrecy of seed, and beyond all, to time..." Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings rainwindthinking We cannot live without the Earth or apart from it, and something is shrivelled in a man's heart when he turns away from it and concerns himself only with the affairs of men Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings earthheartmen I do not understand how anyone can live without some small place of enchantment to turn to. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings enchantmentturnsreligion It seems to me that the earth may be borrowed but not bought. It may be used but not owned. We are tenants, not possessors, lovers and not masters. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings loversearthmay I can only tell you that when long soul-searching and a combination of circumstances delivered me of my last prejudices, there was an exalted sense of liberation. It was not the Negro who became free, but I. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings lastssoullong A woman never forgets the men she could have had; a man, the women he couldn't Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings never-forgetforgetmen Cross Creek belongs to the wind and the rain, to the sun and the seasons, to the cosmic secrecy of seed, and beyond all, to time. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings sunrainwind Fear is the most easily taught of all lessons, and the fight against terror, real or imagined, is perhaps the history of man's mind. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings fightingrealfear Hemingway, damn his soul, makes everything he writes terrifically exciting (and incidentally makes all us second-raters seem positively adolescent) by the seemingly simple expedient of the iceberg principle - three-fourths of the substance under the surface. He comes closer that way to retaining the magic of the original, unexpressed idea or emotion, which is always more stirring than any words. But just try and do it! Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings simplewritingideas Readers themselves, I think, contribute to a book. They add their own imaginations, and it is as though the writer only gave them something to work on, and they did the rest. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings readingbookthinking No man should have proprietary rights over land who does not use that land wisely and lovingly. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings landshould-havemen Ants in the house seem to be, not intruders, but the owners. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ownersantshouse Writing is agony for me. I work at it eight hours every day, hoping to get six pages, but I am satisfied with three. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings agonyeightwriting Sorrow was like the wind. It came in gusts. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings sorrowgrievingwind it is my conviction that the personality of the writer has nothing to do with the literate product of his mind. And publicity in this case embarrasses me because I am acutely conscious of how far short the book falls of the artistry I am struggling to achieve. It's like being caught half-dressed. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings strugglebookfall Men had reached into the scrub and along its boundaries, had snatched what they could get and had gone away, uneasy in that vast indifferent peace; for a man was nothing, crawling ant-like among the myrtle bushes under the pines. Now they were gone, it was as though they had never been. The silence of the scrub was primordial. The wood-thrush crying across it might have been the first bird in the world-or the last. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings gone-awaysilencemen Food imaginatively and lovingly prepared, and eaten in good company, warms the being with something more than the mere intake of calories. I cannot conceive of cooking for friends or family, under reasonable conditions, as being a chore. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings good-companycaloriescooking A man'll seem like a person to a woman, year in, year out. She'll put up and she'll put up. Then one day he'll do something maybe no worse than what he's been a-doing all his life. She'll look at him. And without no warning he'll look like a varmint. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings one-daymenyears Now, having left cities behind me, turned Away forever from the strange, gregarious Huddling of men by stones, I find those various Great towns I knew fused into one, burned Together in the fire of my despising. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings citiesfiremen
