Quotes from Katherine Mansfield

Can one do nothing for the dead? And for a long time the answer had been - Nothing!

Every time one leaves anywhere, something precious, which ought not to be killed, is left to die.

You might drop your heart into me and you'd never hear it touch bottom.

My love for you tonight is so deep and tender that it seems to be outside myself as well.

What I feel for you can't be conveyed in phrasal combinations; It either screams out loud or stays painfully silent but I promise — it beats words. It beats worlds. I promise

Looking back, I imagine I was always writing. Twaddle it was too. But better far write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all.

When we can begin to take our failures seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.

It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.

we cling to our last pleasures as the tree clings to its last leaves.

Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.

The whole world shall be ours because of our love.

Perhaps it does not matter so very much what it is one loves in this world. But love something one must.

It's a terrible thing to be alone - yes it is - it is - but don't lower your mask until you have another mask prepared beneath - as terrible as you like - but a mask.

Would you not like to try all sorts of lives - one is so very small - but that is the satisfaction of writing - one can impersonate so many people.

Sleeping was her latest discovery. 'It's so wonderful. One simply shuts one's eyes, that's all. It's so delicious.

How hard it is to escape from places. However carefully one goes they hold you — you leave little bits of yourself fluttering on the fences — like rags and shreds of your very life.

Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.

Bless you, my darling, and remember you are always in the heart — oh tucked so close there is no chance of escape — of your sister.

How idiotic civilization is! Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle?

If there was one thing that he hated more than another it was the way she had of waking him in the morning. She did it on purpose, of course. It was her way of establishing her grievance for the day.

Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change.

Make it a rule of life never to regret and never to look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it; it's only good for wallowing in.

I have such a horror of telegrams that ask me how I am!! I always want to reply dead.

I love the rain. I want the feeling of it on my face.