“One of the disadvantages of almost universal education was the fact that all kinds of persons acquired a familiarity with one's favorite writers. It gave one a curious feeling; it was like seeing a drunken stranger wrapped in one's dressing gown.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“I saw something nasty in the woodshed.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“Well, when I am fifty-three or so I would like to write a novel as good as Persuasion but with a modern setting, of course. For the next thirty years or so I shall be collecting material for it. If anyone asks me what I work at, I shall say, 'Collecting material'. No one can object to that.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“She liked Victorian novels. They were the only kind of novel you could read while eating an apple.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“That would be delightful,' agreed Flora, thinking how nasty and boring it would be.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“Mary, you know I hate parties. My idea of hell is a very large party in a cold room where everybody has to play hockey properly.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“Like all really strong-minded women, on whom everybody flops, she adored being bossed about. It was so restful.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“Surely she had endured enough for one evening without having to listen to intelligent conversation?”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“You have the most revolting Florence Nightingale complex,' said Mrs. Smiling.
It is not that at all, and well you know it. On the whole, I dislike my fellow beings; I find them so difficult to understand. But I have a tidy mind and untidy lives irritate me. Also, they are uncivilized.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“The education bestowed on Flora Poste by her parents had been expensive, athletic and prolonged; and when they died within a few weeks of one another during the annual epidemic of the influenza or Spanish Plague which occurred in her twentieth year, she was discovered to possess every art and grace save that of earning her own living.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“Flora sighed. It was curious that persons who lived what the novelists called a rich emotional life always seemed to be a bit slow on the uptake.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“Here was an occasion, she thought, for indulging in that deliberate rudeness which only persons with habitually good manners have the right to commit...”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“Well,' said Mrs Smiling, 'it sounds an appalling place, but in a different way from all the others. I mean, it does sound interesting and appalling, while the others just sound appalling.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“Women are all alike-- aye fussin' over their fal-lals and bedazin' a man's eyes, when all they really want is man's blood and his heart out of his body and his soul and his pride....”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“On the whole, Flora liked it better when they were silent, though it did rather give her the feeling that she was acting in one of the less cheerful German highbrow films.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“Haven't you enough money?'
For she knew that this is what is the matter with nearly everybody over twenty-five.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“After another minute Reuben brought forth the following sentence:
"I ha' scranleted two hundred furrows come five o'clock down i' the bute."
It was a difficult remark, Flora felt, to which to reply.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“I do not object to the phenomena, but I do object to the parrot.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“There are some things (like first love and one’s first reviews) at which a woman in her middle years does not care to look too closely.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“The audience had run to beards and magenta shirts and original ways of arranging its neckwear; and not content with the ravages produced in its over-excitable nervous system by the remorseless workings of its critical intelligence, it had sat through a film of Japanese life called 'Yes,' made by a Norwegian film company in 1915 with Japanese actors, which lasted an hour and three-quarters and contained twelve close-ups of water-lilies lying perfectly still on a scummy pond and four suicides, all done extremely slowly.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“He was, she reflected, almost rudely like a tortoise; and she was glad her friend kept none as pets or they might have suspected mockery.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“The life of a journalist is poor, nasty, brutish, and short. So is his style”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“By the way, I adore my bedroom, but do you think I could have the curtains washed? I believe they are red; and I should so like to make sure.'
Judith had sunk into a reverie.
'Curtains?' she asked, vacantly, lifting her magnificent head. 'Child, child, it is many years since such trifles broke across the web of my solitude'.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“I think it's degrading of you, Flora,' cried Mrs Smiling at breakfast. 'Do you truly mean that you don't ever want to work at anything?'
Her friend replied after some thought: 'Well, when I am fifty-three or so I would like to write a novel as good as "Persuasion", but with a modern setting, of course. For the next thirty years or so I shall be collecting material for it. If anyone asks me what I work at, I shall say "Collecting material." No one can object to that. Besides, I shall be.'
Mrs Smiling drank some coffee in silent disapproval.
'If you ask me,' continued Flora, 'I think I have much in common with Miss Austen. She liked everything to be tidy and pleasant and comfortable around her, and so do I. You see Mary,' - and here Flora began to grow earnest and to wave one finger about - 'unless everything is tidy and pleasant and comfortable all about one, people cannot even begin to enjoy life. I cannot endure messes.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“A straight nose is a great help if one wishes to look serious'.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“Curious how Love destroys every vestige of that politeness which the human race, in its years of evolution, has so painfully acquired.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“She glanced upwards for a second at the soft blue vault of the midsummer night sky. Not a cloud misted its solemn depths. Tomorrow would be a beautiful day.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“Flora inherited, however, from her father a strong will and from her mother a slender ankle.”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
“Richard had realized, not that Elfine was beautiful, but that he loved Elfine. (Young men frequently need this fact pointing out to them, as Flora knew by observing the antics of her friends.)”
― Stella Gibbons, quote from Cold Comfort Farm
Stella Gibbons
Born place: in London, The United Kingdom
Born date January 5, 1902
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“In a cult, you have two identities: your cult identity and your authentic self. Most of the time I operated from my cult identity, which was pliant, submissive and obedient. But when I was pushed to the point where it felt like my survival was at stake, my authentic self came to the fore.”
― Carolyn Jessop, quote from Escape
“For the one and only time I caught a glimpse of a great heart as well as of a great brain.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, quote from The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes
“Truth destroys the worst in man; pleasure destroys the best. If you love truth more than happiness, then open; otherwise, let rest.” His”
― quote from The Golden Age
“Not a day has gone by for me that I haven't been waiting for you. That I haven't dreamed of a faceless you. That I haven't imagined what you would feel like under my palms. Waiting was never the problem, it was doubting. I began to doubt that you were real, that you were actually coming to me. But I should never have doubted you. I'm amazed when I look at your face to see the love I feel for you smiling back at me. I would do anything you asked of me to keep that smile there. You are all there is, my world... I'm honored just to be in your presence, let alone have your heart. I adore the way you look at my world. The love you have for my family. How you can be so completely innocent and so achingly sexy all at the same time. How you're always selfless, and there, and full of love even after everything you've been through. Baby, I've said it a million times and I'll continue to say it 'til my last breath… You're amazing. Tomorrow you'll be mine in every way, every sense, every second, but I know that no matter how tight I hold you, it'll never be close enough. No matter how long or hard or passionately I kiss your lips, it'll never be sating. You're my soul-mate, my reason to keep pulling air into my lungs, my gorgeous significant that fits in my arms and my life perfectly, my whole life, my love, my partner in crime, my very heart, my amazing girl. Marry me. Take the beating heart in my chest and do with it what you wish. It's been yours since the day you saved my life. You've been saving it ever since. I love you, baby, more than will ever be understandable, but I dare you to try. Every tomorrow is all that matters, my love. The”
― Shelly Crane, quote from Independence
“It should begin with friendship, I think. Suddenly I cannot look at him.
It should begin with friendship and truly knowing who a person is, knowing his flaws and hopes and strengths and fears, knowing all of it. And admiring and caring for- loving the person because of all of those things...
I know that now.”
― Lisa Ann Sandell, quote from Song of the Sparrow
A Different Mirror:...
Diary of Saint Maria...
The Stars, Like Dust
The NeighborBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
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