Quotes from Miss Read

Happiness is the result of an attitude of mind. I believe you can build it out of small things.

A quarter past three," she exclaimed, catching sight of the bedside clock. "What a time to be drinking tea!" "Anytime," Harold told her, "is time to be drinking tea.

A quarter past three," she exclaimed, catching sight of the bedside clock. "What a time to be drinking tea!" "Anytime," Harold told her, "is time to be drinking tea.

Thoughts by a graveside are too dark and deep to be sustained for any length of time. Sooner or later the hurt mind turns to the sun for healing, and this is as it should be, for otherwise, what future could any of us hope for, but madness?

I soon realized that what I really wanted was time to ruminate, time to observe, and often time to be alone.

Anyone with any sense welcomes retirement,

Life went on. No matter what happened, life went on, inexorably, callously, it might seem, to those in grief. But somehow, in this continuity, there were the seeds of comfort.

Fairacre children could handle tools, and had the plodding unhurried methods of the countryman that produce amazing results. Here was the perfect medium for their inborn skill. The golden sand was turned, raked, piled, patted and ornamented with shells and seaweed,

You aren't just given happiness, you have to pick it up here and there all through the day.

How many people had stood here, as she did now, puzzled, unhappy, numb with pain and perplexity? And how many had found comfort in the knowledge of the continuity of life, of being but one link in a long chain of human experience, in this old, old setting?

The thing to do,' I said as we gained the lane that leads to Beech Green and Fairacre, 'is to get absolutely everything in the summer and lock it in a cupboard. Then order every scrap of food from a shop the week before Christmas and sit back and enjoy watching everyone else go mad. I've been meaning to do it for years.

My parents were great readers of poetry and had a weakness for the light fantastic.' 'A pleasant change from the heavy dismal we suffer from everywhere today,' commented Winnie.

Miss Clare had already arrived when I walked over at a quarter to nine. Her bicycle, as upright and as ancient as its owner, was propped just inside the lobby door.

In any case, I see no reason why a good-tempered, steady-going cat should not be included in a country classroom. It adds a pleasantly domestic touch to our working conditions.

How seldom one can indulge in the inflation of any sort of emotion without life's little pin-pricks bursting the balloon.

The worst of getting old,' said Winnie, 'is the time one has to spend in patching oneself up.

You need a few prunes,' said the doctor, 'and a bit of roughage.' 'Donald!' protested Winnie. 'Must you? At table?' 'Sorry, my dear, sorry,' said her husband. 'Too bad of me,' apologised Richard. 'Living alone such a lot makes one over-interested perhaps in one's natural functions.' Winnie felt that this could lead to somewhat alarming disclosures which might be regretted by all. She changed the subject abruptly.

That's the third death this year,' mused Mr Willet, his eyes on the rooks wheeling against the sky. . . . 'Like a stab wound, every time,' he said. 'Leaves a hole, and a little of your life-blood drains away.

And now Emily Davis was dead! Or was she, wondered Jane? What was that saying about those who lived in the hearts of others? Something to the effect that they never really died. If that were the case, then Emily Davis would certainly live on.

In a feverish world she is like a cool drink.

Perhaps that had been the secret of Miss Davis's strength, she thought suddenly. She went at her own pace, and had time to relish all the lovely natural things in Springbourne and thereabouts. And when the occasion arose, that happiness, fed by inner serenity, could succor the weak and give, as Susan could so poignantly recall, strength and heart to those who needed it.

My schooldays coincided with a complete ban on teaching the alphabet, and I have a terrible time finding anything in the telephone directory.

Oh lovely, lovely life that can toss us from horror to hilarity, without giving us time to take breath! No mater how dark it may be, yet, unfailingly, "Cheerfulness breaks in.

a considerable