The Bookshop

A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and as such it must surely be a necessary commodity.

Morality is seldom a safe guide for human conduct.

She had a kind heart, though that is not of much use when it comes to the matter of self-preservation.

Surely you have to succeed, if you give everything you have.' 'I don't see why. Everyone has to give everything they have eventually. They have to die. Dying can't be called a success.

Courage and endurance are useless if they are never tested.

She did not know that morality is seldom a safe guide for human conduct.

What seemed delicacy in him was usually a way of avoiding trouble; what seemed like sympathy was the instinct to prevent trouble before it started. It was hard to see what growing older would mean to such a person. His emotions, from lack of exercise, had disappeared almost altogether. Adaptability and curiosity, he had found, did just as well.

have remained true to my deepest convictions, I mean to the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to

Florence had noticed one or two eccentricities in herself lately, which might be the result of hard work, or of age, or of living alone. When the letters came, for example, she often found herself wasting time in looking at the postmarks and wondering whoever they could be from, instead of opening them in a sensible manner and finding out at once.

A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life.

She ought to go down to the beach. It was Thursday, early closing, and it seemed ungrateful to live so close to the sea and never look at it for weeks on end.

La valentía de ella, al fin y al cabo, no era otra cosa que su determinación por sobrevivir.

It was defeat, but defeat is less unwelcome when you are tired.

Those who made it {to her shop} were somewhat unwilling to part with...what Florence really wanted, unless she would also take a pile of novels which had the air, in their slightly worn jackets, of women on whom no one had ever made any demand.

No tengo nada contra la formación profesional, pero entrar ahí quiere decir lo siguiente: ¿qué posibilidades tendrá en la vida de conocer a un hombre con educación y de casarse con él? Nunca podrá aspirar a nada más que a un obrero o, incluso, a uno en paro.

Últimamente se había empezado a preguntar si no tendría la obligación de demostrarse a sí misma, y posiblemente a los demás, que ella existía por derecho propio.

La fuerza de voluntad es inútil si no se va a algún lado

Quizá su batalla para establecerse en Old House había terminado, o quizá se equivocaba al pensar que había encontrado su lugar o que podría encontrarlo alguna vez.

Igual que seguía considerando que la gravedad es una fuerza que atrae las cosas hacia sí, y no una simple cuestión que se encarga de las que menos resistencia opongan a ella, estaba segura de que el carácter era una lucha entre las buenas y las malas intenciones.

A los diez años y medio tenía la certeza, quizá por última vez en su vida, de cómo había que hacer las cosas exactamente

Ninguna de las dos estaba preparada para reconocer que le gustaría proteger a la otra. Habría sido como permitir que el miedo entrara en la habitación.

Es un buen libro y, por lo tanto, debería intentar vendérselo a los habitantes de Hardborough. No lo entenderán, pero será mejor así. Entender las cosas hace que la mente se vuelva perezosa.

A good book is the precious life-blood of a masterspirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and as such it must surely be a necessary commodity.

IN 1959 Florence Green occasionally passed a night when she was not absolutely sure whether she had slept or not.

She had once seen a heron flying across the estuary and trying, while it was on the wing, to swallow an eel which it had caught. The eel, in turn, was struggling to escape from the gullet of the heron and appeared a quarter, a half, or occasionally three-quarters of the way out. The indecision expressed by both creatures was pitiable. They had taken on too much.