Quotes from Daphne du Maurier

I suppose sooner or later in the life of everyone comes a moment of trial. We all of us have our particular devil who rides us and torments us, and we must give battle in the end.

If only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.

Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.

Women want love to be a novel, men a short story.

I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say.

...but I should say that kindliness, and sincerity, and if I may say so--modesty--are worth far more to a man, to a husband, than all the wit and beauty in the world.

I believe there is a theory that men and women emerge finer and stronger after suffering, an that to advance in this or any world we must endure ordeal by fire." (From Rebecca)

Dead men tell no tales, Mary.

If there's one thing that makes a man sick, it's to have his ale poured out of an ugly hand.

She could not separate success from peace of mind. The two must go together.

We're not meant for happiness, you and I.

She knew that this was happiness, this was living as she had always wished to live.

Life was a series of greetings and farewells, one was always saying good-bye to something, to someone.

The point is, life has to be endured, and lived. But how to live it is the problem.

There is no going back in life. There is no return. No second chance.

What about the hero of The House on the Strand? What did it mean when he dropped the telephone at the end of the book? I don't really know, but I rather think he was going to be paralysed for life. Don't you?

Come and see us if you feel like it,' she said. 'I always expect people to ask themselves. Life is too short to send out invitations.

How simple life becomes when things like mirrors are forgotten.

Life and death do not wait for legal action.

...the routine of life goes on, whatever happens, we do the same things, go through the little performance of eating, sleeping, washing. No crisis can break through the crust of habit.

Time will mellow it, make it a moment for laughter. But now it was not funny, now I did not laugh. It was not the future, it was the present. It was too vivid and too real.

I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say.

... and through it all and afterwards they would be together, making their own world where nothing mattered but the things they could give to one another, the loveliness, the silence, and the peace.