Quotes from Frenchman's Creek

“She knew that this was happiness, this was living as she had always wished to live.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“And this then, that I am feeling now, is the hell that comes with love, the hell and the damnation and the agony beyond all enduring, because after the beauty and the loveliness comes the sorrow and the pain.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“You understand now... how simple life becomes when things like mirrors are forgotten.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“And all this, she thought, is only momentary, is only a fragment in time that will never come again, for yesterday already belongs to the past and is ours no longer, and tomorrow is an unknown thing that may be hostile. This is our day, our moment, the sun belongs to us, and the wind, and the sea, and the men for'ard there singing on the deck. This day is forever a day to be held and cherished, because in it we shall have lived, and loved, and nothing else matters but that in this world of our own making to which we have escaped.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“... and through it all and afterwards they would be together, making their own world where nothing mattered but the things they could give to one another, the loveliness, the silence, and the peace.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“I wonder ... when it was that the world first went amiss, and men forgot how to live and to love and to be happy.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“For love, as she knew it now, was something without shame and without reserve, the possession of two people who had no barrier between them, and no pride; whatever happened to him would happen to her too, all feeling, all movement, all sensation of body and of mind.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“From the very first, I knew that it would be so...I smiled to myself, and said, "That -- and none other.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“All whispers and echoes from a past that is gone teem into the sleeper's brain, and he is with them, and part of them.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“Contentment is a state of mind and body when the two work in harmony, and there is no friction. The mind is at peace, and the body also. The two are sufficient to themselves. Happiness is elusive -- coming perhaps once in a life-time -- and approaching ectasy.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“...she thought with pity of all the men and women who were not light-hearted when they loved, who were cold, who were reluctant, who were shy, who imagined that passion and tenderness were two things separate from one another, and not the one, gloriously intermingled, so that to be fierce was also to be gentle, so that silence was a speaking without words.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“How pleasant,' Dona said, peeling her fruit; 'the rest of us can only run away from time to time, and however much we pretend to be free, we know it is only for a little while - our hands and our feet are tied.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“…you guessed that somewhere, in heaven knew what country and what guise, there was someone who was part of your body and your brain, and that without him you were lost, a straw blown by the wind.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“...are you happy?"

"I am content."

"What is the difference?"

"Between happiness and contentment? Ah, there you have me. It is not easy to put into words. Contentment is a state of mind and body when the two work in harmony, and there is no friction. The mind is at peace, and the body also. The two are sufficient to themselves. Happiness is elusive--coming perhaps once in a life-time--and approaching ecstasy."

"Not a continuous thing, like contentment?"

"No, not a continuous thing. But there are, after all, degrees of happiness.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“People who travel are always fugitives.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“And perhaps one day, in after years, someone would wander there and listen to the silence, as she had done, and catch the whisper of the dreams that she had dreamt there, in midsummer, under the hot sun and the white sky.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“There was silence between them for moment, and she wondered if all women, when in love, were torn between two impulses, a longing to throw modesty and reserve to the winds and confess everything, and an equal determination to conceal the love forever, to be cool, aloof, utterly detached, to die rather than admit a thing so personal, so intimate.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“...I will shed no more tears, like a spoilt child. For whatever happens we have had what we have had. No one can take that from us. And I have been alive, who was never alive before.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“...somewhere there is a Dona of tomorrow, a Dona of the future, of ten years away, to whom all of this will be a thing to cherish, a thing to remember. Much will be forgotten then, perhaps, the sound of the tide on the mud flats, the dark sky, the dark water, the shiver of the trees behinds us and the shadows they cast before them, and the smell of the young bracken and the moss. Even the things we said will be forgotten, the touch of hands, the warmth, the loveliness, but never the peace that we have given to each other, never the stillness and the silence.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“And oh, heaven - the crowded playhouse, the stench of perfume upon heated bodies, the silly laughter and the clatter, the party in the Royal box - the King himself present - the impatient crowd in the cheap seats stamping and shouting for the play to begin while they threw orange peel on to the stage.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“It is all very simple really. There are no dark problems about it. I have no grudge against society, no bitter hatred of my fellow-men. It just happens that the problems of piracy interest me, suit my particular bent of thought. It is not just a matter of brutality and bloodshed, you know. The organization takes many hours of many days, every detail of a landing has to be thought out, and prepared. I hate disorder, or any slipshod method of attack. The whole thing is very much like a geometrical problem, it is food for the brain. And then—well—then I have my fun, my spice of excitement, my beating of the other fellow. It is very satisfying, very absorbing.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“The other Dona was dead too, and this woman who had taken her place was someone who lived with greater intensity, with greater depth, bringing to every thought and every action a new richness of feeling, and an appreciation, half sensuous in its quality, of all the little things that came to make her day.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“It does happen, you know, from time to time, that a man finds a woman who is the answer to all his more searching dreams. And the two have understanding of each other, from the lightest moment to the darkest mood.”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

“love was a thing of such simplicity once it was shared, and admitted, and done, with all the joy intensified and all the fever gone”
― Daphne du Maurier, quote from Frenchman's Creek

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“Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Cousin‟s Wife.
Moses must have forgotten to write that one down”
― Julia Quinn, quote from When He Was Wicked

“Man follows Earth, Earth follows Heaven. Heaven follows the Tao. Yet the Tao follows Nature. Tao produced one. One produced two. Two produced Three. Three produced ten thousand beings. Ten thousand beings carry yin and embrace yang; By blending their energies they achieve harmony. Therefore existence and nonexistence produce each other. Difficulty and ease complement each other. Long and short contrast with each other. High and low rely on each other. Sound and voice harmonize with each other. Front and back follow each other. The Tao fulfills its purpose quietly and makes no claim. When success is achieved, withdrawing. The highest good is like water. Water benefits ten thousand beings, Yet it does not contend. Nothing under Heaven is as soft and yielding as water. Yet in attacking the firm and strong, Nothing is better than water.”
― quote from The I Ching or Book of Changes

“Even the formal measure of the Seasons seemed suspended in the wintry silence.”
― Anthony Powell, quote from A Dance to the Music of Time: 4th Movement

“For what it's worth: it's never too late or, in my case, too early to be whoever you want to be. There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, quote from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

“Vespers

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

God bless Mummy. I know that's right.
Wasn't it fun in the bath tonight?
The cold's so cold, and the hot's so hot.
Oh! God bless Daddy -- I quite forgot.

If I open my fingers a little bit more,
I can see Nanny's dressing-gown on the door.
It's a beautiful blue, but it hasn't a hood.
Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.

Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,
And pull the hood right over my head,
And I shut my eyes, and I curl up small,
And nobody knows that I'm there at all.

Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day.
And what was the other I had to say?
I said "Bless Daddy," so what can it be?
Oh! Now I remember. God bless Me.

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed.
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.”
― A.A. Milne, quote from When We Were Very Young

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