Quotes from D.E. Stevenson

Interesting? What do you mean?' 'Here are two brothers,' explained Neil. 'Andrew steals Randal's bride, and makes off with her like young Lochinvar, and twenty years later Randal steals Andrew's daughter.

You're just the same, David. You don't like talking about anything unpleasant." " Who does! " I exclaimed. " But it's like an ostrich, burying its head in the sand! " " Not really," I said thoughtfully. " It's better to be happy and think of nice things instead of being miserable and worrying over nasty things.

Roger reflected that it was a pity children had to grow up; by this time next year Stephen would be a schoolboy and the childish innocence would have vanished . . . but one could not help it of course. One could only do one's best to see that the child grew into a boy and the boy into a man smoothly, and with the least possible suffering . . . and that there were as few "nasty things" as possible in his cupboard of memory to roll out unexpectedly and make him uncomfortable.

Of all the idiotic laws!" exclaimed Guy, when Annie had gone to fetch it. "Of all the damned silly, fussy, old-womanish laws! I don't know what we're coming to. We're supposed to be fighting for freedom, aren't we? If this is a free country, why can't you turn round without being throttled by red tape? Why can't you get a drink when you need one?

Painters sometimes come to Cairn; they set up their easels and mix their colours and paint strange pictures of the place—pictures which, as far as the villagers can see, bear little or no resemblance to the scene.

Anne could not explain. It was always difficult for Anne to explain things even when they were clear to herself, and in this case she scarcely knew what she meant.

Well, no," replied George; "but we'll think about it now. Let's see," he continued, eyeing the colt, whose light hide gleamed softly in the ever-increasing gloom, "Snowflake, Soapflake. What about Lux?

People who have suffered a great deal of unhappiness through death or loneliness are often beset by the fear of losing their dear ones.

It is wonderful to be happy, but to know you are happy is absolute bliss.

Thunder and lightning!" cried the huge man when he came within speaking distance of the little minister — "thunder and lightning! if it isn't Mr Maclaren himself! Not a day older — man, you're a wonder!

You've got to accept the good and the bad in life and make the best of them. I don't mean you should knuckle down—anything but! I mean it's no good trying to row against the tide.

I missed Elsie dreadfully," she said, "I missed her all the more because I lost her completely—more completely than if she had died. We had always written to each other and told each other everything but after she was married and went to Germany her letters were quite different—I felt she wasn't Elsie any more. Otto always called her Elsa—well of course that was a very small thing but I didn't like it.

After about an hour she asks if we are nearly there, and I reply firmly that we shall not be there for hours and hours. 'But we've been hours and hours already,' she says, 'and we were in Scotland when we started so we must be nearly there. Scotland's quite small on the map.' I

The odd thing was that there was scarcely a man in the place who could not produce some sort of firearm. They had no right to possess firearms without a permit, but Mr. MacDonald shut his eyes to this well-known fact and welcomed the motley collection with enthusiasm.

Clocks need a man to keep them in proper subjection.)

Humility was not just an absence of pride, it was not a negative virtue, it was a definite "fruit of the spirit". False humility was horrible of course (vide Uriah Heep) but real humility, growing from within, was beautiful.

I had nothing to fall back on, so the smallest accident was a major disaster.

Have you ever noticed how a very small thing can give you an enormous amount of pleasure? You don't know why it should; but it just—just makes you happy.

Perhaps it was inevitable that this quixotic boy should fall in love with Mary Kerr. She was so small and frail, so pathetic in her helplessness, and in her resignation to her fate. The boatman seemed a bully — the most despicable trait in the boy's eyes; sympathy for her came to him at their first meeting, a passionate pity that wrung his tender heart, and love followed with startling rapidity.

Smouldering Fire was first published in the U.K. in 1935 and in the U.S. in 1938. Later reprints were all heavily abridged. For our reprint, Furrowed Middlebrow and Dean Street Press have followed the text of the first U.K. edition,

If it wasn't that it was all arranged I'd back down," declares Annie frankly. I assure Annie that a lot of people feel like that as their wedding day approaches. "Yes," says Annie. "Mrs. Fraser did too. Mrs. Fraser says it's like 'aving a tooth out. You're sorry you ever came when you find yourself in the dentist's chair, but you're all the better for it afterwards.

Spend the afternoon with Miss H. looking over Bryan's school clothes, and compile a large list of what he requires, which will probably have to be ruthlessly revised on financial grounds. Present Miss H. with some outgrown shirts, shorts, and vests for her small brother, who is reported to be the same age as Bryan only (gratifyingly)not so big. (Query Why should one be inordinately pleased at evidence of immense size of offspring compared to other children?)

Every year somebody invents something new — some new devilish machine to make our lives a burden

It was a five-mile drive. I peeped out of my bedroom window as they came up the path together and my first impression was that they were very alike. They were the same height and had the same wavy grey hair. Later I changed my mind and decided that no two men could be more unlike.