We're a shifty, sliding population. ... What we refer to as 'home' may be a place we haven't seen in years; a place where there's no one left who knows our name. Barbara Holland More Quotes by Barbara Holland More Quotes From Barbara Holland Gloom we have always with us, a rank and sturdy weed, but joy requires tending. Barbara Holland sturdy weed joy Subtly, in the little ways, joy has been leaking out of our lives. The small pleasures of the ordinary day seem almost contemptible, and glance off us lightly...Perhaps it's a good time to reconsider pleasure at its roots. Changing out of wet shoes and socks, for instance. Bathrobes. Yawning and stretching. Real tomatoes. Barbara Holland shoes real roots Are you seeing a psychiatrist?' as a conversation opener would nowadays earn you a punch in the nose, but for fifty years it was a compliment. It meant, 'One can plainly see you are sensitive, intense, and interesting, and therefore neurotic.' Only the dullest of clods trudged around without a neurosis. Barbara Holland noses years interesting moral indignation is a pleasure, often the only pleasure, in many lives. It's also one of the few pleasures people feel obliged to force on other people. Barbara Holland morality pleasure people By and large, people who enjoy teaching animals to roll over will find themselves happier with a dog. Barbara Holland cat teaching dog Cats vary so widely that all data is meaningless and the professional classifiers gnash their teeth trying to come up with even a single fact common to all. Barbara Holland data cat trying One's own flowers and some of one's own vegetables make acceptable, free, self-congratulatory gifts when visiting friends, though giving zucchini - or leaving it on the doorstep, ringing the bell, and running - is a social faux pas. Barbara Holland zucchini flower running Life, after we'd had a few millennia to observe it, turned out to be dreadfully unfair, so we invented sports. Barbara Holland unfair sports The thing to remember is that children are temporary. As soon as they develop a sense of humor and get to be good company, maybe even remember to take the trash out and close the refrigerator door, they pack up their electronic equipment and their clothes, and some of your clothes, and leave in a U-Haul, to return only at Thanksgiving. Barbara Holland clothes doors children The larger the ego, the less the need for other egos around. The more modest, humble, and self-effacing we feel, the more we suffer from solitude, feeling ourselves inadequate company. Barbara Holland ego self humble For some of us, the soul is resident in the sole, and yearns ceaselessly for light and air and self-expression. Our feet are our very selves. The touch of floor or carpet, grass or mud or asphalt, speaks to us loud and clear from the foot, that scorned and lowly organ as dear to us as our eyes and ears. Barbara Holland light eye feet Dogwoods are great optimists. Daffodils wait and see, crouching firmly underground just in case spring doesn't come this year, but dogwoods have faith. Barbara Holland waiting spring years However long you have a cat and however plainly he lays his life open before you, there is always something hidden, some name he goes by in a place you never heard of. Barbara Holland cat names long The trouble with American History is that you don't remember it, and why should you? Nobody does. Barbara Holland doe remember history The thousands of possible lives that used to spread out in front of me have snapped shut into one, and all I get is what I've got. It's time to pass on the possibilities, all those deliciously half-open doors, to my children, and drive them to the airports, and wish them bon voyage. Barbara Holland airports life children The only people who still read poetry are poets, and they mostly read their own. Barbara Holland poet stills people parents needn't bother driving small children around to see the purple mountains' majesties; the children will go right on duking it out in the back seat and whining for food as if you were showing them Cincinnati. No one under twenty really wants to look at scenery. Barbara Holland purple parent children Almost any dog thinks almost any human is the Great Spirit, the Primal Creator, and the Universal Force Behind the Sun and Tides. What human can resist? Barbara Holland dog sun thinking For the first time in six or seven thousand years, many people of goodwill find themselves confused about art. They want to enjoy it because enjoying art is something they expect of themselves as civilized persons, but they're unsure how to do so. They aren't even sure which of the visible objects are art and which are furniture, clothes, hors d'oeuvres, or construction rubble, and whether a pile of dead and decomposing rats is deliberate art or just another pile of decomposing rats. Barbara Holland confused years art Very few people have no opinions about cats. Barbara Holland cat opinion people
