And so she knelt in front of a bookcase, in driving need of the right arrangement of words; for it is a remarkable fact that she w...as left unmoved by criticisms of the sort of person she was by parents, relations, preachers, teachers, politicians and the people who write for the newspapers; whereas an unsympathetic description of a character similar to her own in a novel would send her into a condition of anxious soul-searching for days. Which suggests that it is of no use for artists to insist, with such nervous disinclination for responsibility, that their productions are only "a divine play" or "a reflection from the creative fires of irony," etc., etc., while the Marthas of this world read and search with the craving thought, What does this say about my life?LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
To have a place full of delights and nothing but delights, which one does not have to explain and defend to people who have ideas ...unsympathetic to one, it is to economize the forces which keep one from ending like the wisteria, from committing the unpardonable sin of doing things with difficulty.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The years seemed to stretch before her like the land: spring, summer, autumn, winter, spring; always the same patient fields, the ...patient little trees, the patient lives; always the same yearning; the same pulling at the chain--until the instinct to live had torn itself and bled and weakened for the last time, until the chain secured a dead woman, who might cautiously be released.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is futile to ask women not to go into business, as futile almost as to insist that water shall not run downhill. One cannot sto...p world movements; and the efforts of women toward emancipation--the natural result of the deadly monotony of their task on the one hand, a jealousy of man's freedom, and a total ignorance of man's struggle as well as of the glory of their own special opportunity--all lead to the condition we are facing to-day. If in any way I can indicate the pain of the struggle, if I can succeed in making women appreciate that there are two sides to the question, one not altogether rosy, and that, although they will undoubtedly win, they will be forced to pay a high price, then I shall have accomplished my purpose.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I shall never send for a priest or recite an Act of Contrition in my last moments. I do not mind if I lose my soul for all eternit...y. If the kind of God exists Who would damn me for not working out a deal with Him, then that is unfortunate. I should not care to spend eternity in the company of such a person.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... it was religion that saved me. Our ugly church and parochial school provided me with my only aesthetic outlet, in the words of... the Mass and the litanies and the old Latin hymns, in the Easter lilies around the altar, rosaries, ornamented prayer books, votive lamps, holy cards stamped in gold and decorated with flower wreaths and a saint's picture.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
... the average Catholic perceives no connection between religion and morality, unless it is a question of someone else's morality....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »