Quotes from The Yearling

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings ·  513 pages

Rating: (23.6K votes)


“Now he understood. This was death. Death was a silence that gave back no answer.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“You've seed how things goes in the world o' men. You've knowed men to be low-down and mean. You've seed ol' Death at his tricks...Ever' man wants life to be a fine thing, and a easy. 'Tis fine, boy, powerful fine, but 'tain't easy. Life knocks a man down and he gits up and it knocks him down agin. I've been uneasy all my life...I've wanted life to be easy for you. Easier'n 'twas for me. A man's heart aches, seein' his young uns face the world. Knowin' they got to get their guts tore out, the way his was tore. I wanted to spare you, long as I could. I wanted you to frolic with your yearlin'. I knowed the lonesomeness he eased for you. But ever' man's lonesome. What's he to do then? What's he to do when he gits knocked down? Why, take it for his share and go on.

—Penny Baxter”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“He lay down beside the fawn. He put one arm across its neck. It did not seem to him that he could ever be lonely again.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“He was addled with April. He was dizzy with Spring. He was as drunk as Lem Forrester on a Saturday night.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“This, then, was hunger. This was what his mother had meant when she had said, "We'll all go hongry." He had laughed, for he had thought he had known hunger, and it was faintly pleasant. He knew now that it had been only appetite. This was another thing.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling



“You kin tame arything, son, excusin’ the human tongue.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“They listened with flattering attention. He was filled with enthusiasm. He began at the beginning and tried to tell it as he thought Penny would do. Half-way through, he looked down at the cake. He lost interest in the account.

"Then Pa shot him," he ended abruptly.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“The wild animals seemed less predatory to him than people he had known.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“He watched the sun rise beyond the grape arbor. In the thin golden light the young leaves and tendrils of the Scuppernong were like Twink Weatherby's hair. He decided that sunrise and sunset both gave him a pleasantly sad feeling. The sunrise brought a wild, free sadness; the sunset, a lonely yet a comforting one. He indulged his agreeable melancholy until the earth under him turned from gray to lavender and then to the color dried corn husks.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“Don't go gittin faintified on me.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling



“He would be lonely all his life. But a man took it for his share and went on.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“Eulalie in a remote fashion belonged to him, Jody, to do with as he pleased, if only to throw potatoes at her.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“Jody said, "Ma, you're shore good."

"Oh, yes. When it's rations."

"Well, I'd a heap ruther you was good about rations and mean about other things."

"Oh, I be mean, be I?"

"Only about jest a very few things," he soothed her.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“He wrote:

Dear ollever; yor ol twinkk has dun gode up the rivver. im gladd. yor friend jody.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“You do somethin' for me? Go tell Twink I'll meet her at the old grove Tuesday about dusk-dark."

Jody was frozen.

He burst out, "I won't do it. I hate her. Ol' yellow-headed somethin'.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling



“He lay down on his pallet and drew the fawn down beside him. He often lay so with it in the shed, or under the live oaks in the heat of the day. He lay with his head against its side. its ribs lifted and fell with its breathing. It rested its chin on his hand. It had a few short hairs there that prickled him. He had been cudgeling his wits for an excuse to bring the fawn inside at night to sleep with him, and now he had one that could not be disputed. He would smuggle it in and out as long as possible, in the name of peace.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“I'm eating' it quick... but I'll remember it a long time.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“Well, son, you cain’t go thru life chunkin’ things at all the ugly women you meet.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“Grandma Hutto’s flower garden was a bright patchwork quilt thrown down inside the pickets.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“She drew gallantry from men as the sun drew water. Her pertness enchanted them. Young men went away from her with a feeling of bravado. Old men were enslaved by her silver curls. Something about her was forever female and made all men virile.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling



“Ma Baxter rocked complacently. They were all pleased whenever she made a joke. Her good nature made the same difference in the house as the hearth-fire had made in the chill of the evening.”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


“Ever' man wants life to be a fine thing, and a easy. 'Tis fine, boy, powerful fine, but 'taint easy.

--Penny Baxter to his son, Jody”
― Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, quote from The Yearling


About the author

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
Born place: in Washington, DC, The United States
Born date August 8, 1896
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Popular quotes

“Saturday morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young, the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. The locust-trees were in bloom, and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and above, it was green with vegetation, and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting.”
― Mark Twain, quote from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer


“It is better to burn than to disappear.”
― Albert Camus, quote from The Stranger


“A sound of laughter was heard-they turned sharply. Vera Claythorne was standing in the yard. She cried out in a high shrill voice, shaken with wild bursts of laughter:
"Do they keep bees on this island? Tell me that. Where do we go for honey? Ha! ha!"
They stared at her uncomprehendingly. It was as though the sane well-balanced girl had gone mad right before their eyes. She went on in that high unnatural voice:
"Don't stare like that! As though you thought I was mad. It's sane enough what I'm asking. Bees, hives, bees! Oh, don't you understand? Haven't you read that idiotic rhyme? It's up in all of your bedrooms-put it there for you to study! We might have come here straightaway if we'd had sense. Seven little soldiers chopping up sticks. And the next verse, I know the whole thing by heart, I tell you! Six little soldier boys playing with a hive. And that's why I'm asking-do they keep bees on this island- isn't it damned funny...?”
― Agatha Christie, quote from And Then There Were None


“And now tell me, why is it that you use me words "good people" all the time? Do you call everyone that, or what?
- Everyone, - the prisoner replied. - There are no evil people in the world.

(- А теперь скажи мне, что это ты все время употребляешь слова добрые
люди"? Ты всех, что ли, так называешь?
- Всех, - ответил арестант, - злых людей нет на свете.)”
― Mikhail Bulgakov, quote from The Master and Margarita


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