200+ Quotes & Sayings By Lm Montgomery

Laura Mary Montgomery, O.B.E., (19 November 1874 – 8 May 1940) was a Canadian novelist and short story writer. She is best known for her novels Anne of Green Gables and Anne of the Island, which have had a profound impact on popular culture in North America and around the world.

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Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps . perhaps . love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath. L.m. Montgomery
Anne laughed.
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Anne laughed." I don't want sunbursts or marble halls, I just want you. L.m. Montgomery
And if you couldn't be loved, the next best thing...
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And if you couldn't be loved, the next best thing was to be let alone. L.m. Montgomery
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A broken heart in real life isn't half as dreadful as it is in books. It's a good deal like a bad tooth, though you won't think THAT a very romantic simile. It takes spells of aching and gives you a sleepless night now and then, but between times it lets you enjoy life and dreams and echoes and peanut candy as if there were nothing the matter with it. L.m. Montgomery
Gilbert, I'm afraid I'm scandalously in love with you.
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Gilbert, I'm afraid I'm scandalously in love with you. L.m. Montgomery
You see,
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You see, " she concluded miserably, "when I can call like that to him across space-- I belong to him. He doesn't love me--he never will--but I belong to him. L.m. Montgomery
Why did dusk and fir-scent and the afterglow of autumnal...
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Why did dusk and fir-scent and the afterglow of autumnal sunsets make people say absurd things? L.m. Montgomery
Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh...
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Life is worth living as long as there's a laugh in it. L.m. Montgomery
Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new...
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Isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet? L.m. Montgomery
Well, we all make mistakes, dear, so just put it...
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Well, we all make mistakes, dear, so just put it behind you. We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us. L.m. Montgomery
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After all, " Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string. L.m. Montgomery
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I'd like to add some beauty to life, " said Anne dreamily. "I don't exactly want to make people KNOW more... though I know that IS the noblest ambition... but I'd love to make them have a pleasanter time because of me... to have some little joy or happy thought that would never have existed if I hadn't been born. L.m. Montgomery
I don't know, I don't want to talk as much....
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I don't know, I don't want to talk as much. (...) It's nicer to think dear, pretty thoughts and keep them in one's heart, like treasures. I don't like to have them laughed at or wondered over. L.m. Montgomery
Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying...
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Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing. L.m. Montgomery
I've done my best, and I begin to understand what...
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I've done my best, and I begin to understand what is meant by 'the joy of strife'. Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing. L.m. Montgomery
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When I left Queen's my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don't know what lies around the bend, but I'm going to believe that the best does. L.m. Montgomery
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In imagination she sailed over storied seas that wash the distant shining shores of "faëry lands forlorn, " where lost Atlantis and Elysium lie, with the evening star for pilot, to the land of Heart's Desire. And she was richer in those dreams than in realities; for things seen pass away, but the things that are unseen are eternal. L.m. Montgomery
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You're not eating anything, " said Marilla sharply, eying her as if it were a serious shortcoming. Anne sighed. I can't. I'm in the depths of despair. Can you eat whenyou are in the depths of despair?" I've never been in the depths of despair, so I can't say, " responded Marilla. Weren't you? Well, did you ever try to IMAGINE you were inthe depths of despair?" No, I didn't." Then I don't think you can understand what it's like. It's very uncomfortable a feeling indeed. . L.m. Montgomery
Gossip, as usual, was one-third right and two-thirds wrong.
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Gossip, as usual, was one-third right and two-thirds wrong. L.m. Montgomery
The world looks like something God had just imaged for...
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The world looks like something God had just imaged for his own pleasure, doesn't it? L.m. Montgomery
...the sorrows God sent us brought comfort and strength with...
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...the sorrows God sent us brought comfort and strength with them, while the sorrows we brought on ourselves, through folly or wickedness, were by far the hardest to bear. L.m. Montgomery
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When you've learned to laugh at the things that should be laughed at, and not to laugh at those that shouldn't, you've got wisdom and understanding. L.m. Montgomery
It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy...
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It's been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will. L.m. Montgomery
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But pearls are for tears, the old legend says, " Gilbert had objected." I'm not afraid of that. And tears can be happy as well as sad. My very happiest moments have been when I had tears in my eyes–when Marilla told me I might stay at Green Gables–when Matthew gave me the first pretty dress I ever had–when I heard that you were going to recover from the fever. So give me pearls for our troth ring, Gilbert, and I'll willingly accept the sorrow of life with its joy." -Anne. L.m. Montgomery
Oh, Marilla, I thought I was happy before. Now I...
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Oh, Marilla, I thought I was happy before. Now I know that I just dreamed a pleasant dream of happiness. This is the reality. L.m. Montgomery
The gods, so says the old superstition, do not like...
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The gods, so says the old superstition, do not like to behold too happy mortals. It is certain, at least, that some human beings do not. L.m. Montgomery
Well, I don't want to be anyone but myself, even...
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Well, I don't want to be anyone but myself, even if I go uncomforted by diamonds all my life, ' declared Anne. 'I'm quite content to be Anne of Green Gables, with my string of pearl beads. L.m. Montgomery
We mustn't let next week rob us of this week's...
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We mustn't let next week rob us of this week's joy. L.m. Montgomery
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But I'll have to ask you to wait a long time, Anne, " said Gilbert sadly. "It will be three years before I'll finish my medical course. And even then there will be no diamond sunbursts and marble halls." Anne laughed." I don't want sunbursts and marble halls. I just want YOU. You see I'm quite as shameless as Phil about it. Sunbursts and marble halls may be all very well, but there is more `scope for imagination' without them. And as for the waiting, that doesn't matter. We'll just be happy, waiting and working for each other -- and dreaming. Oh, dreams will be very sweet now." Gilbert drew her close to him and kissed her. Then they walked home together in the dusk, crowned king and queen in the bridal realm of love, along winding paths fringed with the sweetest flowers that ever bloomed, and over haunted meadows where winds of hope and memory blew. . L.m. Montgomery
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Anne, look here. Can’t we be good friends?” For a moment Anne hesitated. She had an odd, newly awakened consciousness under all her outraged dignity that the half-shy, half-eager expression in Gilbert’s hazel eyes was something that was very good to see. Her heart gave a quick, queer little beat. But the bitterness of her old grievance promptly stiffened up her wavering determination. That scene of two years before flashed back into her recollection as vividly as if it had taken place yesterday. Gilbert had called her “carrots” and had brought about her disdain before the whole school. Her resentment, which to other and older people might be as laughable as its cause, was in no whit allayed and softened by time seemingly. She hated Gilbert Blythe! She would never forgive him! . L.m. Montgomery
Nobody with any real sense of humor *can* write a...
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Nobody with any real sense of humor *can* write a love story... . Shakespeare is the exception that proves the rule. (90-91) L.m. Montgomery
My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes.
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My life is a perfect graveyard of buried hopes. L.m. Montgomery
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Despair is a free man–hope isa slave. L.m. Montgomery
The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their...
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The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their place, must not be the things lived for; the highest must be sought and followed; the life of heaven must be begun here on earth. L.m. Montgomery
Don't you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly...
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Don't you just love poetry that gives you a crinkly feeling up and down your back? L.m. Montgomery
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I suppose that's how it looks in prose. But it's very different if you look at it through poetry…and I think it's nicer…' Anne recovered herself and her eyes shone and her cheeks flushed… 'to look at it through poetry. L.m. Montgomery
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Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I'd look up into the sky–up–up–up–into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd just feel a prayer. L.m. Montgomery
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There is such a place as fairyland - but only children can find the way to it. And they do not know that it is fairyland until they have grown so old that they forget the way. One bitter day, when they seek it and cannot find it, they realize what they have lost; and that is the tragedy of life. On that day the gates of Eden are shut behind them and the age of gold is over. Henceforth they must dwell in the common light of common day. Only a few, who remain children at heart, can ever find that fair, lost path again; and blessed are they above mortals. They, and only they, can bring us tidings from that dear country where we once sojourned and from which we must evermore be exiles. The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and story-tellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland. L.m. Montgomery
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Jane's stories are too sensible. Then Diana puts too much murders into hers. She says most of the time she doesn't know what to do with the people so she kills them off to get rid of them." -Anne Shirley L.m. Montgomery
Fancies are like shadows...you can't cage them, they're such wayward,...
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Fancies are like shadows...you can't cage them, they're such wayward, dancing things. L.m. Montgomery
My pen shall heal, not hurt.
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My pen shall heal, not hurt. L.m. Montgomery
You have the itch for writing born in you. It's...
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You have the itch for writing born in you. It's quite incurable. What are you going to do with it? L.m. Montgomery
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I'd write of people and places like I knew, and I'd make my characters talk everyday English; and I'd let the sun rise and set in the usual quiet way without much fuss over the fact. If I had to have villains at all, I'd give them a chance, Anne--I'd give them a chance. There are some terrible bad men the world, I suppose, but you'd have to go a long piece to find them.. But most of us have got a little decency somewhere in us. Keep on writing, Anne. L.m. Montgomery
Don't try to write anything you can't feel - it...
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Don't try to write anything you can't feel - it will be a failure - 'echoes nothing worth L.m. Montgomery
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It was not, of course, a proper thing to do. But then I have never pretended, nor will ever pretend, that Emily was a proper child. Books are not written about proper children. They would be so dull nobody would read them. L.m. Montgomery
The p'int of good writing is to know when to...
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The p'int of good writing is to know when to stop. L.m. Montgomery
Then Diana puts too many murders into [her stories]. She...
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Then Diana puts too many murders into [her stories]. She says most of the time she doesn’t know what to do with the people so she kills them off to get rid of them. L.m. Montgomery
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When I left Queen's my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don't know what lies around the bend, but I am going to believe that the best does. It has a fascination of its own, that bend, Marilla. I wonder how the road beyond it goes - what there is of green glory and soft, checkered light and shadows - what new landscapes - what new beauties - what curves and hills and valleys farther on. L.m. Montgomery
That's one of the things we learn as we grow...
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That's one of the things we learn as we grow older -- how to forgive. It comes easier at forty than it did at twenty. L.m. Montgomery
Aunt Elizabeth said, 'Do you expect to attend many balls,...
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Aunt Elizabeth said, 'Do you expect to attend many balls, if I may ask?' and I said, 'Yes, when I am rich and famous.' and Aunt Elizabeth said, 'Yes, when the moon is made of green cheese. L.m. Montgomery
Oh, this is the most TRAGICAL thing that ever happened...
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Oh, this is the most TRAGICAL thing that ever happened to me! L.m. Montgomery
I never hear about dear Mike. I wrote Ellen Greene...
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I never hear about dear Mike. I wrote Ellen Greene and asked about him and she replyed and never mentioned Mike but told me all about her roomatism. As if I cared about her roomatism. L.m. Montgomery
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I think it's something like Mr. Peter Sloane and the octogenarians. The other evening Mrs. Sloane was reading a newspaper ans she said to Mr. Sloane 'I see here that another octogenarian has just died. What is an Octogenarian, Peter?' And Mr. Sloane said he didn't know, but they must be very sickly creatures, for you never heard tell of them but they were dying. L.m. Montgomery
I am simply a 'book drunkard.' Books have the same...
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I am simply a 'book drunkard.' Books have the same irresistible temptation for me that liquor has for its devotee. I cannot withstand them. L.m. Montgomery
I hate to lend a book I love…it never seems...
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I hate to lend a book I love…it never seems quite the same when it comes back to me… L.m. Montgomery
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Our library isn't very extensive, " said Anne, "but every book in it is a friend. We've picked our books up through the years, here and there, never buying one until we had first read it and knew that it belonged to the race of Joseph. L.m. Montgomery
Blessings be the inventor of the alphabet, pen and printing...
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Blessings be the inventor of the alphabet, pen and printing press! Life would be--to me in all events--a terrible thing without books. L.m. Montgomery
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Fear is the original sin. Almost all of the evil in the world has its origin in the fact that some one is afraid of something. It is a cold slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear and it is of all things degrading. L.m. Montgomery
Fear is a vile thing, and is at the bottom...
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Fear is a vile thing, and is at the bottom of almost every wrong and hatred of the world. L.m. Montgomery
Fear is more pain than is the pain it fears
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Fear is more pain than is the pain it fears L.m. Montgomery
True friends are always together in spirit. (Anne Shirley)
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True friends are always together in spirit. (Anne Shirley) L.m. Montgomery
Oh, sometimes I think it is of no use to...
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Oh, sometimes I think it is of no use to make friends. They only go out of your life after awhile and leave a hurt that is worse than the emptiness before they came. L.m. Montgomery
When twilight drops her curtain down And pins it with...
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When twilight drops her curtain down And pins it with a star Remember that you have a friend Though she may wander far. L.m. Montgomery
…I'm so thankful for friendship. It beautifies life so much.
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…I'm so thankful for friendship. It beautifies life so much. L.m. Montgomery
Kindred spirits alone do not change with the changing years.
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Kindred spirits alone do not change with the changing years. L.m. Montgomery
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Even when I'm alone I have real good company – dreams and imaginations and pretendings. I like to be alone now and then, just to think over things and taste them. But I love friendships – and nice, jolly little times with people. L.m. Montgomery
Thank goodness, we can choose our friends. We have to...
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Thank goodness, we can choose our friends. We have to take our relatives as they are, and be thankful… L.m. Montgomery
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I feel as if something has been torn suddenly out of my life and left a terrible hole. I feel as if I couldn't be I – as if I must have changed into somebody else and couldn't get used to it. It gives me a horrible lonely, dazed, helpless feeling. It's good to see you again – it seems as if you were a sort of anchor for my drifting soul. L.m. Montgomery
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We've had a beautiful friendship, Diana. We've never marred it by one quarrel or coolness or unkind word; and I hope it will always be so. But things can't be quite the same after this. You'll have other interests. I'll just be on the outside. L.m. Montgomery
People who are different from other people are always called...
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People who are different from other people are always called peculiar, ' said Anne. L.m. Montgomery
It takes all sorts of people to make a world,...
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It takes all sorts of people to make a world, as I've often heard, but I think there are some who could be spared, ' Anne told her reflection in the east gable mirror that night. L.m. Montgomery
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Before this war is over, ' [Walter] said - or something said through his lips - 'every man and woman and child in Canada will feel it - you, Mary, will feel it - feel it to your heart's core. You will weep tears of blood over it. The Piper has come - and he will pipe until every corner of the world has heard his awful and irresistible music. It will be years before the dance of death is over - years, Mary. And in those years millions of hearts will break. L.m. Montgomery
You may tire of reality but you never tire of...
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You may tire of reality but you never tire of dreams. L.m. Montgomery
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She had dreamed some brilliant dreams during the past winter and now they lay in the dust around her. In her present mood of self-disgust, she could not immediately begin dreaming again. And she discovered that, while solitude with dreams is glorious, solitude without them has few charms. L.m. Montgomery
Listen to the trees talking in their sleep, ' she...
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Listen to the trees talking in their sleep, ' she whispered, as he lifted her to the ground. 'What nice dreams they must have! L.m. Montgomery
Everybody has. It wouldn't do for us to have all...
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Everybody has. It wouldn't do for us to have all our dreams fulfilled. We would be as good as dead if we had nothing left to dream about. L.m. Montgomery
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I'm so glad you're here, Anne, ' said Miss Lavendar, nibbling at her candy. 'If you weren't I should be blue…very blue…almost navy blue. Dreams and make-believes are all very well in the daytime and the sunshine, but when dark and storm come they fail to satisfy. One wants real things then. But you don't know this…seventeen never knows it. At seventeen dreams do satisfy because you think the realities are waiting for you further on. L.m. Montgomery
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She wondered if old dreams could haunt rooms - if, when one left forever the room where she had joyed and suffered and laughed and wept, something of her, intangible and invisible, yet nonetheless real, did not remain behind like a voiceful memory. L.m. Montgomery
That's all the freedom we can hope for - the...
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That's all the freedom we can hope for - the freedom to choose our prison. L.m. Montgomery
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There is no such thing as freedom on earth, " he said. "Only different kinds of bondages. And comparative bondages. YOU think you are free now because you've escaped from a peculiarly unbreakable kind of bondage. But are you? You love me - THAT'S a bondage. L.m. Montgomery
After all, what could you expect from a pig but...
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After all, what could you expect from a pig but a grunt? L.m. Montgomery
Oh
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Oh", she thought, "how horrible it is that people have to grow up-and marry-and change! L.m. Montgomery
People told her she hadn't changed much, in a tone...
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People told her she hadn't changed much, in a tone which hinted they were surprised and a little disappointed she hadn't. L.m. Montgomery
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I've put out a lot of little roots these two years, " Anne told the moon, "and when I'm pulled up they're going to hurt a great deal. But it's best to go, I think, and, as Marilla says, there's no good reason why I shouldn't. I must get out all my ambitions and dust them. L.m. Montgomery
Changes come all the time. Just as soon as things...
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Changes come all the time. Just as soon as things get really nice they change, ' she said with a sigh. L.m. Montgomery
Changes ain't totally pleasant but they're excellent things... Two years...
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Changes ain't totally pleasant but they're excellent things... Two years is about long enough for things to stay exactly the same. If they stayed put any longer they might grow mossy. L.m. Montgomery
Which would you rather be if you had the choice--divinely...
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Which would you rather be if you had the choice--divinely beautiful or dazzlingly clever or angelically good? L.m. Montgomery
Secrets are generally terrible. Beauty is not hidden--only ugliness and...
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Secrets are generally terrible. Beauty is not hidden--only ugliness and deformity. L.m. Montgomery
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I am quite likely to re-act to the opposite extreme - to feel rapturously that the world is beautiful and mere existence something to thank God for. I suppose our 'blues' are the price we have to pay for our temperament. 'The gods don't allow us to be in their debt.' They give us sensitiveness to beauty in all its forms but the shadow of the gift goes with it. L.m. Montgomery
90
Oh, Mr. Cuthbert, " she whispered, that place we came through--that white place--what was it?"" Well now, you must mean the Avenue, " said Matthew after a few moments' profound reflection. "It is a kind of pretty place."" Pretty? Oh, PRETTY doesn't seem the right word to use. Nor beautiful, either. They don't go far enough. Oh, it was wonderful--wonderful. It's the first thing I ever saw that couldn't be improved upon by imagination. It just satisfies me here"--she put one hand on her breast--"it made a queer funny ache and yet it was a pleasant ache. Did you ever have an ache like that, Mr. Cuthbert?""Well now, I just can't recollect that I ever had."" I have it lots of time--whenever I see anything royally beautiful. But they shouldn't call that lovely place the Avenue. There is no meaning in a name like that. They should call it--let me see--the White Way of Delight. Isn't that a nice imaginative name? . L.m. Montgomery
Not lovelier. But a different kind of loveliness. There are...
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Not lovelier. But a different kind of loveliness. There are so many kinds of loveliness. L.m. Montgomery
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Love! What a searing, torturing, intolerably sweet thing it was - this possession of body, soul and mind! With something at its core as fine and remote and purely spiritual as the tiny blue spark in the heart of the unbreakable diamond. L.m. Montgomery
The body grows slowly and steadily but the soul grows...
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The body grows slowly and steadily but the soul grows by leaps and bounds. It may come to its full stature in an hour. L.m. Montgomery
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Anybody is liable to rheumatism in her legs, Anne. It's only old people who should have rheumatism in their souls, though. Thanks goodness, I never have. When you get rheumatism in your soul you might as well go and pick out your coffin. L.m. Montgomery
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I have made up my mind that I will never marry. I shall be wedded to my art. L.m. Montgomery
96
There is so much in the world for us if we only have the eyes to see it, and the heart to love it, and the hand to gather it ourselves- so much in men and women, so much in art and literature, so much everywhere in which to delight, and for which to be thankful for. L.m. Montgomery
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I think this story-writing business is the foolishest yet, " scoffed Marilla. "You'll get a pack of nonsense into your heads and waste time that should be put to your lessons. Reading stories is bad enough but writing them is worse. L.m. Montgomery
98
Then the immortal heart of the woods will beat against ours and its subtle life will steal into our veins and make us its own forever, so that no matter where we go or how widely we wander we shall yet be drawn back to the forest to find our most enduring kinship. L.m. Montgomery
99
I hear the Wind Woman running with soft, soft footsteps over the hill. I shall always think of the wind as a personality. She is a shrew when she blows from the north -- a lonely seeker when she blows from the east -- a laughing girl when she comes from the west -- and tonight from the south a little grey fairy. L.m. Montgomery
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Nobody can keep on being angry if she looks into the heart of a pansy for a little while. L.m. Montgomery