Charlotte Mason Quotes

We all have need to be trained to see, and to have our eyes opened before we can take in the joy that is meant for us in this beautiful life. ~ Charlotte Mason

Education is a matter of the spirit. No wiser word has been said on the subject, and yet we persist in applying education from without. No one knoweth the things of the man except the spirit of man which is in him; therefore, there is no education but self-education, and as soon as a young child begins his education, he does so as a student. Our business is to give him mind stuff. Both quantity and quality are essential. ~ Charlotte Mason

The teacher who allows his scholars the freedom of the city of books is at liberty to be their guide, philosopher and friend; and is no longer the mere instrument of forcible intellectual feeding. ~ Charlotte Mason

Composition is as natural as jumping and running to children who have been allowed due use of books. ~ Charlotte Mason

We have never been so rich in books. But there has never been a generation when there is so much twaddle in print for children. ~ Charlotte Mason

Give your child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education than if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information. ~ Charlotte Mason

A child is a person in whom all possibilities are present - present now at this very moment - not to be educed after many years and efforts manifold on the part of the educator ~ Charlotte Mason

Every common miracle which the child sees with his own eyes makes of him for the moment another Newton. ~ Charlotte Mason

So much for the right books; the right use of them is another matter. The children must enjoy the book. The ideas it holds must each make that sudden, delightful impact upon their minds, must cause that intellectual stir, which mark the inception of an idea. ~ Charlotte Mason

The indwelling of Christ is a thought particularly fit for the children, because their large faith does not stumble at the mystery, their imagination leaps readily to the marvel, that the King Himself should inhabit a little child's heart. ~ Charlotte Mason

No parent/home/child/teacher/school has an all-round 100 percent wholeness. We all have limitations and problems. But I must never think it is all or nothing.
Perhaps I'd like to live in the country, but I don't. Well, maybe I can get the family to a park two times a week, and out to the country once every two weeks.
Maybe I have to send my child to a not-so-good school. Well, maybe we can read one or two good books together aloud. If you can't give them everything, give them something. ~ Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

Children should transcribe favourite passages.
A certain sense of possession and delight may be added to this exercise if children are allowed to choose for transcription their favorite verse in one poem or another ... But a book of their own, made up of their own chosen verses, should give them pleasure. ~ Charlotte Mason

Education is the science of relations ~ Charlotte Mason

Let children feed on the good, the excellent, the great! Don't get in their way with little lectures, facts, and guided tours! ~ Charlotte Mason

Every person exceeds our power of measurement. ~ Charlotte Mason

Every walk should offer some knotty problem for the children to think out-"Why does that leaf float on the water, and this pebble sink?" and so on. ~ Charlotte Mason

Profound thought is conveyed in language of very great simplicity and purity. ~ Charlotte Mason

For the mind is capable of dealing with only one kind of food; it lives, grows and is nourished upon ideas only; mere information is to it as a meal of sawdust to the body; there are no organs for the assimilation of the one more than of the other. ~ Charlotte Mason

Children should have the joy of living in far lands, in other persons, in other times - a delightful double existence; and this joy they will find, for the most part, in their story books. Their lessons, too, history and geography, should cultivate their conceptive powers. If the children do not live in the times of his history lesson, be not at home in the climate his geography book describes, why, these lessons will fail of their purpose. ~ Charlotte Mason

The peculiar value of geography lies in its fitness to nourish the mind with ideas and furnish the imagination with pictures. ~ Charlotte Mason

Look on education as something between the child's soul and God. Modern Education tends to look on it as something between the child's brain and the standardized test. ~ Charlotte Mason

Oral teaching was to a great extent ruled out; a large number of books on many subjects were set for reading in morning school-hours; so much work was set that there was only time for a single reading; all reading was tested by a narration of the whole or a given passage, whether orally or in writing. Children working on these lines know months after that which they have read and are remarkable for their power of concentration (attention); they have little trouble with spelling or composition and become well-informed, intelligent persons. ~ Charlotte Mason, Towards A Philosophy Of Education

Let children have tales of the imagination, scenes laid in other lands and other times; heroic adventures, hairbreadth escapes, delicious fairy tales, even where it is all impossible, and they know it, and yet they believe. ~ Charlotte Mason

Let them get at the books themselves, and do not let them be flooded with diluted talk from the lips of their teacher. The less the parents 'talk-in' and expound their rations of knowledge and thought to the children they are educating, the better for the children ... Children must be allowed to ruminate, must be left alone with their own thoughts. ~ Charlotte Mason

To introduce children to literature is to instal them in a very rich and glorious kingdom, to bring a continual holiday to their doors, to lay before them a feast exquisitely served. But they must learn to know literature by being familiar with it from the very first. A child's intercourse must always be with good books, the best that we can find. ~ Charlotte Mason

In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mother's first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet and growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it for the most part spent out in the fresh air. ~ Charlotte Mason

And all the time we have books, books teeming with ideas fresh from the minds of thinkers upon every subject to which we can wish to introduce children. ~ Charlotte Mason

[Who are the artists you admire, Surrealist or otherwise?]
Remedios Varo, Max Ernst, Charlotte Salomon, Goya, Aubrey Beardsley. Beardsley is not so much about the impossible as he is about freaks and deformities, but those are interesting to me too. ~ Audrey Niffenegger

I mean, he did say vagina, didn't he? And if he did, then how come it sounded so exciting? Vagina is pretty much the least exciting word in the world. It's something your doctor says to you shortly before he invades it with what looks like a weapon from our robotic future. ~ Charlotte Stein

LAST NIGHT IN THE CITY
Written in the style of Andrew Fusek Peters…… by Charlotte Eden Aged 9. My granddaughter

Last night I saw the city boasting.
Fat and ugly office blocks gloated
over poor and empty parking lots,
and conceited takeaways mocked
the fish and chip shops

Last night I saw the city sleeping.
The sun, as hot as an oven, began
to rest its brightness,
and the moon awoke from
his deep slumber.

Last night I saw the city breathing.
Airports inhaled the landing planes,
while cars wheezed in the
Cold, frosty night.

Last night I saw the city crying.
The gleaming stars poured from
the night sky, and landed
in a cracked, glass puddle.

Last night I saw the city chuckling.
Owls laughed at the bats' jokes,
while hedgehogs made fun of the
hibernating squirrels.

Last night I saw the city performing.
The thin trees danced in the puffing wind,
and the stars put on a show
in the moonlight.

Charlotte Eden
June 2016. Copyright ~ Ann Perry

Artistic creation - in summary - is the desire not to forget. ~ Charlotte M. Bridwell

May I not sit in judgment. May I be open to hearing and accepting the truth of what I am told. May my decisions be for the good of all concerned. May my work bring peace . . . Charlotte ~ Jacqueline Winspear

What have you been doing during my absence?'
'Nothing particular; teaching Adele as usual.'
'And getting a good deal paler than you were - as I saw at first sight. What is the matter?'
'Nothing at all, sir.'
'Did you take any cold that night you half drowned me?'
'Not the least.'
'Return to the drawing-room: you are deserting too early.'
'I am tired, sir.'
He looked at me for a minute.
'And a little depressed,' he said. 'What about? Tell me.'
'Nothing - nothing, sir. I am not depressed.'
'But I affirm that you are: so much depressed that a few more words would bring tears to your eyes - indeed, they are there now, shining and swimming; and a bead has slipped from the lash and fallen on the flag. If I had time, and was not in mortal dread of some prating prig of a servant passing, I would know what all this means. Well, to-night I excuse you; but understand that so long as my visitors stay, I expect you to appear in the drawing-room every evening; it is my wish; don't neglect it. Now go, and send Sophie for Adele. Good-night, my..' He stopped, bit his lip, and abruptly left me.
(Jane and Mr Rochester) ~ Charlotte Bronte

There is nothing supernatural. There are only the things in this world that we understand, the things that we don't understand, and made up crap." The last part of that saying was always the best bit. "Pray at the alter of each of these things, my darlings." She would be smirking by then." They all work in their own way. ~ Jamie Mason

Yes. I think I'll name my next horse Charlotte. She had tits a man could die between."
Teta like to name his horses after special women in his life. I'd noticed how he never mentioned naming a horse after his wife. ~ Hunter Shea

Alas! never had I loved him so well! ~ Charlotte Bronte

Self-absorption intensifies isolation, but permits it to go unnoticed. ~ Mason Cooley

Make my happiness , i will make yours . let no man prevent me , i have her and i will keep her. ~ Charlotte Bronte

Was I gleeful, settled, content, during the hours I passed in yonder bare, humble schoolroom this morning and afternoon? Not to decieve myself, I must reply
No: I felt desolate to a degree. I felt
yes, idiot that I am
I felt degraded. I doubted I had taken a step which sank instead of raising me in the scale of social existence. I was weakly dismayed at the ignorance, the poverty, the coarseness of all I heard and saw around me. But let me not hate and despise myself too much for these feelings; I know them to be wrong
that is a great step gained. I shall strive to overcome them. ~ Charlotte Bronte

I never have time to write anymore. And when I do I only write about how I never have time. It's work and it's money and I've written more lists than songs lately. I stay up all night to do all these things I need to do, be all these things I want to be, playing with shadows in the darkness that shouldn't be able to exist. Empty bottles and cigarettes while watching the sunrise, why do I complain? I have it all, everything I ever asked for. ~ Charlotte Eriksson

Mr. Rochester, I no more assign this fate to you than I grasp at it for myself. We were born to strive and endure - you as well as I: do so. You will forget me before I forget you. ~ Charlotte Bronte

You don't even need the director's judgement. It's too much. ~ Charlotte Gainsbourg

The Media: bold sex and violence, timid politics and morals. ~ Mason Cooley

The home is a human institution. All human institutions are open to improvement. ~ Charlotte Perkins Gilman

A world full of people who want to know what you will be, what is your skill and what is your purpose. In the north, if a man had come and said "What will you be? What will you do?" I would have laughed at this kind of person that lives all the time in the future. ~ Daniel Mason

In general, salary for land surveyors is often similar to that of a professional engineer or lawyer - surveyors are often "comfortable" but not "wealthy." ~ Mark Mason

In good time he was to discover that he was mistaken about Charlotte. Underneath her rather bold and cruel exterior, she had a kind heart, and she was to prove loyal and true to the very end. ~ E.B. White

Once a hunter met a lion near the hungry critter's lair,
and the way that lion mauled him was decidedly unfair;
but the hunter never whimpered when the surgeons, with their thread,
sewed up forty-seven gashes in his mutilated head;
and he showed the scars in triumph, and they gave him pleasant fame,
and he always blessed the lion that had camped upon his frame.
Once that hunter, absent minded, sat upon a hill of ants,
and about a million bit him, and you should have seen him dance!
And he used up lots of language of a deep magenta tint,
and apostrophized the insects in a style unfit to print.
And it's thus with worldly troubles;
when the big ones come along, we serenely go to meet them, feeling valiant, bold and strong, but the weary little worries with their poisoned stings and smarts, put the lid upon our courage, make us gray, and break our hearts. ~ Walt Mason

There was also more practical inquiry. How should I make a living? How do I get my relatives out of my house? Could you help me postpone payment of this loan? The dervishes had jobs in the workday world: mason, weaver, bookbinder, grocer, hatmaker, tailor, carpenter. They were craftsmen and -women, not renunciates of everyday life, but affirmative makers and ecstatics. Some people call them sufis, or mystics. I say they're on the way of the heart. ~ Coleman Barks

Charlotte Palmer is no sillier than Harriet Smith; and yet, how intolerable we should find it to see and hear as much of Charlotte as we do of Harriet! And would Miss Bates have been endurable if she had been presented in the mood and manners of Sense and Sensibility? ~ Mary Lascelles

And even so, before I had ever met Charlotte Holmes, I was sure she was the only friend I would make in that miserable place. ~ Brittany Cavallaro

Picture me then idle, basking, plump, and happy, stretched on a cushioned deck, warmed with constant sunshine, rocked by breezes indolently soft. ~ Charlotte Bronte

Eccentricity: strength of character doubling back on itself. ~ Mason Cooley

I have one weapon," Mason said. "It's a powerful weapon. But sometimes it's hard to wield it because you don't know just where to grab hold of it."
"What weapon is that?" Della Street asked.
"The truth," Mason said. ~ Erle Stanley Gardner

The party out of office becomes the articulate one. ~ Mason Cooley

Nothing much bothered you for a while and you kept walking like a silhouette through this town, saying hi's and goodbyes, acting polite at all times. But there is no fire in your heart; you are not very concerned. ~ Charlotte Eriksson

A vagina. Were you really that mystified there, or are you actually not sure?'
'Sure about what?'
Goddamn, he needs to finish his sentences.
'About the benefits of having a vagina.'
'Look – I know the benefits, OK?'
I totally don't. Currently it feels like an angry animal that wants to eat him, between my legs. ~ Charlotte Stein

All that is left to one who grieves
Is convalescence. No change of heart or spiritual
Conversion, for the heart has changed
And the soul has been converted
To a thing that sees
How much it costs to lose a friend it loved. ~ Herbert Mason

Well; I would rather die yonder than in a street, or on a frequented road, ' I reflected. 'And far better that crows and ravens -if any ravens there be in these regions- should pick my flesh from my bones, than that they should be prisoned in a work-house coffin, and moulder in a pauper's grave. ~ Charlotte Bronte

Pain pays no attention to moans or excuses. ~ Mason Cooley

I will tell you this my darlings, the very worst regrets are the things you couldn't have handled any other way. ~ Jamie Mason

The most frequently cited artists and curators travel extensively and there is a real difference in saying whether concepts and other contributions to the current contemporary arts agenda bear a recognizable cultural, or even national, identity. ~ Charlotte Bydler

Amy Martin (ladysky) and Daniel Baciagalupo had a month to spend on Charlotte Turner's island in Georgian Bay; it was their wilderness way of getting to know each other before their life together in Toronto began. We don't always have a choice how we get to know one another. Sometimes, people fall into our lives cleanly
as if out of the sky, or as if there were a direct flight from Heaven to Earth
the same sudden way we lose people, who once seemed they would always be part of our lives.
Little Joe was gone, but not a day passed in Daniel Baciagalupo's life when Joe wasn't loved or remembered. The cook had been murdered in his bed, but Dominic Baciagalupo had had the last laugh on the cowboy. Ketchum's left hand would lvie forever in Twisted River, and Six-Pack had known what to do with the rest of her old friend ~ John Irving

Dreams surround our desires with ugliness and dread. ~ Mason Cooley

By the Angel, Bridget's depressing," said Henry, setting down his newspaper directly on his plate and causing the edge to soak through with egg yolk. Charlotte opened her mouth as if to object, and closed it again. "It's all heartbreak, death and unrequited love."
"Well, that is what most songs are about," said Will. "Requited love is nice, but it doesn't make much of a ballad. ~ Cassandra Clare

One who can find lemons sweet and grapes sour is ready for Dame Fortune. ~ Mason Cooley

Malevolence is shameful but satisfying. ~ Mason Cooley

Blanche Ingram, after having repelled, by supercilious taciturnity, some efforts of Mrs Dent and Mrs Eshton to draw her into conversation, had first murmured over some sentimental tunes and airs on the piano, and then, having fetched a novel from the library, had flung herself in haughty listlessness on a sofa and prepared to beguile, by the spell of fiction, the tedious hours of absence. ~ Charlotte Bronte

I'm not very good at talking and being with people and being gregarious and outgoing. I love people, but I have great difficulty doing it. ~ Charlotte Rampling

[He] wanted her to be his. But despite her mother's confidence, Charlotte was still too hesitant for words to be rashly spoken. He needed to guide her into trusting him, show her by his actions that he would be a faithful husband, cleaving only to her, should she do him the great honor and consent to be his wife. ~ Carolyn Miller

You know, we all oppose animal cruelty. But sometimes we forget that animals on farms suffer and feel pain like all other animals. They, too, deserve to be protected from harm and cruelty. ~ Charlotte Ross

We are prepared for insults, but compliments leave us baffled. ~ Mason Cooley

My home is humble and unattractive to strangers, but to me it contains what I shall find nowhere else in the world - the ... affection which brothers and sisters feel for each other. ~ Charlotte Bronte

The true Mason always carries his working tools everywhere. ~ William Howard Taft