Quotes from Elizabeth Goudge

Living as she did in a state of perpetual nervous exhaustion, always driving herself beyond her strength lest the tasks of home and parish accumulate beyond her ability to cope with with them, afraid to relax lest she collapse altogether, she had largely lost the power of wonder, and with it the power of looking at familiar things with fresh appreciation.

The value of little things was heightened by her enjoyment of them; the value of life itself was heightened because she had bought her knowledge of it with bitter sorrow and yet in her old age could wear it with such grace.

She had "green fingers" and knew them to be one of the happiest gifts that the gods can give.

One would know the first cold breath of old age, she thought, when one found oneself in a world where there was no one left to whom one was a child.

She never slept very well because old people never do; especially when they have brought six children and eight grandchildren into a world that is not as good to them as they thought it was going to be.

There was a streak of austerity in him that welcomed hardship, and even, he imagined, was ready to welcome pain. It bred courage, it sifted the true from the false, and courage and truth were companions who would outpace all the others; when dreams had withered and happiness was forgotten they were still there. For their sakes he was prepared to suffer much himself and to see others suffer. Lucilla had been right to recognize in his face that night a hint of ruthlessness.

That was the trouble with Mrs. Hepplewhite's kindness. Once let loose it was like a roaring cataract and one had to be very strong to stand against the current and live.

She knew there could be no certainty, only faith. Could she find faith?

And now Marguerite was sitting up too, the little, monkey! Why could she never get her children in hand as other mothers did? Was she a weak mother, or were they unusually insubordinate children?

I'm still happy," said Marianne. "One can be happy and miserable both at once, you know.

The heaven had cried out for joy, and the earth had answered, and between the two the smell of the gorse rose up like ascending prayer and linked them together. Music and scent were alive once more in the world; only color tarried, waiting upon the sun.

pero no era sólo que rayara el alba, sino que el silencio también se había roto. A lejos, tenue y misterioso, se presentía el ruido del mar.

"Most of us tend to belittle all suffering except our own," said Mary. "I think it's fear. We don't want to come too near in case we're sucked in and have to share it".

Most of the basic truths of life sound absurd at first hearing.

Faith given back to us after a night of doubt is a stronger thing, and far more valuable to us than faith that has never been tested.

Peace ... was contingent upon a certain disposition of the soul a disposition to receive the gift that only detachment from self made possible.

All human beings have their otherness and it is that which cries out to the heart.