Quotes from Rumer Godden

I don't know if I believe in God, but I know I believe in the devil. I have met him.

Drink very good tea out of a thin Wocester cup of colour between apricot and pink.

A garden isn't meant to be useful. It's for joy. Rumer Godden found in Power of Simple Living by Ellyn Sanna

If books were Persian carpets, one would not look only at the outer side. because it is the stitch that makes a carpet wear, gives it its life and bloom.

To me and my kind life itself is a story and we have to tell it in stories - that is the way it falls.

That was true, and dirt, earth, has power, an astonishing power of life, of creating and sweetening; it can take anything, a body, an old tin, decay, rust, corruption, filth, and turn it into itself, and slowly make it life, green blades of grass and weeds.

What happens when a sin is committed? Usually the sinner flourishes.

Harriet was silent, thinking, and then she said, It is too hard to be a person. You don't only have to go on and on. You have to be-- she looked for the word she needed and could not find it. Then, You have to be tall as well, said Harriet.

To wake for the first time in a new place can be like another birth.

The greengages had a pale blue bloom, especially in the shade, but in the sun the flesh showed amber through the clear green skin; if it were cracked the juice was doubly warm and sweet.

If you haven't the money to buy the quality you want, go without, don't compromise.

One of the things that has to be learned is that even sorrow cannot be had in peace, because other people have sorrows too.

And I still think," said Olivia, "that it's better to try and fail, doing what you want to do, than not to try." She could not explain it more clearly that that but she knew it was the trying that was important; even if it fails, it goes to swell the sum total of trying, as a martyr's faith, even if he is killed for it, swells the faith of everyone.

It's queer, she thought, when you're kind to people you can forget them but when you're not, you can't.

Well give me a cup of English tea, that is all I want,' said Sister Locke. 'Tea isn't English,' snapped Sophie, and Sister Locke was hurt.

I don't expect you to understand me any more than I can understand you; but I respect you and that's the difference between us.

I can't,' but it was acceptance now. 'I can't,' whispered Dame Catherine, 'so You must.

There are several ways, he said shyly, in which I'm trying to improve myself. I have a great many books and records and now I'm learning to play golf. Do you know golf, Sister? The English think it's a very serious game. I was going to learn a much more serious game called cricket, but you need twenty two people...

And we pray in reparation, to make up for all those who won't or can't pray for themselves – especially anyone in grave sin. That's why communities say the longest and most arduous Office at night – the time when most sin is committed in the world.' 'You mean a little Carmelite might sit up and pray for a murderer?' 'She has, with results,' said Philippa.

The human heart Is unknowable. But in my birthplace The flowers still smell The same as always.

You are born, you are a he or a she, and you live until you die... Willy-nilly.

Harriet told her, 'Captain John was so brave. He stayed there in the battle until his leg was shot off.' Victoria's brown eyes rested thoughtfully on Captain John. Why didn't he stay until the other leg was shot off?' she asked. But he still seemed to like Victoria best.

Funny,' said Harriet to herself. 'The world goes on turning, and it has all these troubles in it.

Sometimes it seemed to him that the house had a bad wild life of its own; the impression of its evil lingered, in its name, in its atmosphere...