Margaret Deland Quotes

Conceit is the devil's horse, and reformers generally ride it when they are in a hurry.

As I get older there is nothing more constantly astonishing to me than the goodness of the Bad; - unless it is the badness of the Good.

There must be reserves
except with God. The human soul is solitary. But for confession that is different; justice and reparation sometimes demand it; but, again, justice and courage sometimes forbid it.

What I object to in Mother is that she wants me to think her thoughts. Apart from the question of hypocrisy, I prefer my own.

The anger of slow, mild, loving people has a lasting quality that mere bad-tempered folk cannot understand.

Nothing may be more selfish than remorse ...

Nobody who is somebody looks down on anybody.

Of all the bitter and heavy things in this sorry old world, the not being necessary is the bitterest and heaviest.

There are few things that are more endearing than the grace of listening with attention; indeed, it is more than endearing, it is impressive - for no one knows what wisdom lies concealed in silence!

There isn't any virtue where there has never been any temptation.

It's better to be crazy on one point and happy, than sane on all points and unhappy.

A manufactured interest has no staying quality - especially if it involves any hard work.

There couldn't be war, unless lies were believed. War has to be nourished by lies.

To talk over a quarrel, with its inevitable accompaniment of self-justification, is too much like handling cobwebs to be very successful.

Men love their wives not because of their virtues, but in spite of them.

Absurdity is the one thing love can't stand; it can overlook anything else,
coldness, or weakness, or viciousness,
but just be ridiculous and that's the end of it!

Books are like sapphires; they must be polished - polished! or else you insult your readers.

We've all of us got to meet the devil alone. Temptation is a lonely business ...

Hearts don't come when Reason whistles to 'em.

If you are kind to an enemy, you cannot hate him.

There's one thing that always interests me about you good people, not your certainty that the rest of us are swine, - no doubt we are, - but your certainty that your opinions are pearls.

Perhaps there is no conceit so arrogant as the conceit which follows a conviction of emancipation.

By some mysterious method, Susan Carr's gossip gave the listener a gentler feeling towards his kind. When she spoke of her neighbors' faults, one knew that somehow they were simply virtues gone to seed ...

Age, with shamefaced relief, has learned the solvent quality of Time. It is this quality which makes possible the contemplation of certain embarrassing heavenly reunions ...

Self-sacrifice which denies common sense is not a virtue. It's a spiritual dissipation.

Silence is very moving to youth, for who knows what it hides?

Is there anything more unjust than to build gold and brass and iron on poor, well-meaning clay,
and then blame the clay when the whole image falls into dust?

A letter is a risky thing; the writer gambles on the reader's frame of mind.

The fact is, the secret of happiness is the sense of proportion ...

When one promise jostles another, one of 'em isn't a promise.

I notice that when people have no sense of responsibility, you call them either criminals or geniuses.

Lawyers make their cake by cooking up other people's troubles.

Anger as well as love casts out fear ...

Convictions do not imply reasons.

It is useless to deny that, unless one has a genius for imparting knowledge, teaching is a drudgery.

A great moment raises most of the people who experience it, to its own level; and that is why they do not always recognize its greatness - or their own.

If you give way to fear, you'll be a coward; and ... a coward is apt to be a liar. The devil's first name is Fear ...

Some of the things floating about in the Well of Memory are not worth recording.

Habit does much to reconcile us to unpleasantness ...

It is curious how fatal it is, either to a situation or to an individual, or even to a name, if in an evil moment it becomes funny.

When did Youth ever thank Age for its wisdom?

War is wicked, beause it is murder and hate. And it is foolish, because hate and murder can only destroy people's bodies, not change their minds.

Some time in our lives every man and woman of us, putting out our hands toward the stars, touch on either side our prison walls the immutable limitations of temperament

Conscience that isn't hitched up to common sense is a mighty dangerous thing.

Nothing is as conventional as adolescence.

In connection with death, or birth, or love, modesty is only a rather puerile self-consciousness.

There is no embarrassment quite like the embarrassment of listening to a person for whom one has a regard making a fool of himself.

I have heard that a man might be his own lawyer, but you can't be your own judge.

A sneer is like a flame; it may occasionally be curative because it cauterizes, but it leaves a bitter scar.