Though friendship is not quick to burn it is explosive stuff. May Sarton More Quotes by May Sarton More Quotes From May Sarton For to be desperate is to discover strength. / We die of comfort and by conflict live. May Sarton desperate conflict comfort Whatever peace I know rests in the natural world, in feeling myself a part of it, even in a small way. May Sarton feelings peace world Gardening gives one back a sense of proportion about everything - except itself. May Sarton essentials garden giving A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself. May Sarton failure loss death Most people have to talk so they won't hear. May Sarton speakers people I am not a greedy person except about flowers and plants, and then I become fanatically greedy. May Sarton greedy garden flower At some point I believe one has to stop holding back for fear of alienating some imaginary reader or real relative or friend, and come out with personal truth. May Sarton holding-back real believe I long for the bulbs to arrive, for the early autumn chores are melancholy, but the planting of bulbs is the work of hope and is always thrilling. May Sarton autumn october long When we admit our vulnerability, we include others. If we deny it, we shut them out. May Sarton deny ifs pet And one cold starry night / Whatever your belief / The phoenix will take flight / Over the seas of grief / To sing her thrilling song / To stars and waves and sky / For neither old nor young / The phoenix does not die. May Sarton stars grief song It is sometimes the most fragile things that have the power to endure and become sources of strength. May Sarton source strength sometimes Keep busy with survival. Imitate the trees. Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember nothing stays the same for long, not even pain. Sit it out. Let it all pass. Let it go. May Sarton pain letting-go order One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being. May Sarton hero courage thinking Don't forget that compared to a grownup person every baby is a genius. Think of the capacity to learn! The freshness, the temperament, the will of a baby a few months old! May Sarton genius baby thinking One must believe that private dilemmas are, if deeply examined, universal, and so, if expressed, have a human value beyond the private, and one must also believe in the vehicle for expressing them, in the talent. May Sarton talent belief believe True feeling justifies whatever it may cost. May Sarton cost feelings may Anyone who is going to be a writer knows enough at fifteen to write several novels. May Sarton fifteen enough writing I live alone, perhaps for no good reason, for the reason that I am an impossible creature, set apart by a temperament I have never learned to use as it could be used, thrown off by a word, a glance, a rainy day, or one drink too many. My need to be alone is balanced against my fear of what will happen when suddenly I enter the huge empty silence if I cannot find support there. I go up to Heaven and down to Hell in an hour, and keep alive only by imposing upon myself inexorable routines. I write too many letters and too few poems. May Sarton rainy-day silence writing When one's not writing poems - and I'm not at the moment - you wonder how you ever did it. It's like another country you can't reach. May Sarton wonder writing country Love cannot exorcise the gifts of hate. / Hate cannot exorcize what has no weight, / But laughter we can never over-rate. May Sarton laughter hate weight