Elizabeth Goudge quotes

Most of the basic truths of life sound absurd at first hearing. (Elizabeth Goudge)
Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree, or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short. Civilization is another word for respect for life. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
In a world where thrushes sing and willow trees are golden in the spring, boredom should have been included among the seven deadly sins. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
In times of storm and tempest, of indecision and desolation, a book already known and loved makes better reading than something new and untried ... nothing is so warming and companionable. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
[I]f you believe in God omnipresent, then you must believe everything that comes into your life, person or event, must have something of God in it to be experienced and loved; not hated. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
There is always something particularly delightful about exceptions to a rule. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
In my opinion, too much attention to weather makes for instability of character. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
Most of us tend to belittle all suffering except our own," said Mary. "I think it's fear. We don't want to come too near in case we're sucked in and have to share it. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
He grinned at her, and she grinned at him, and it seemed to Maria that suddenly the sun came out. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
Humanity can be roughly divided into three sorts of people - those who find comfort in literature, those who find comfort in personal adornment, and those who find comfort in food. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
A sense of identity is the gift of love, and only love can give it. (Elizabeth Goudge)
Faith given back to us after a night of doubt is a stronger thing, and far more valuable to us than faith that has never been tested. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
Nothing is ever finished and done with in this world. You may think a seed was finished and done with when it falls like a dead thing into the earth; but when it puts forth leaves and flowers next spring you see your mistake. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
What is the scent of water?" "Renewal. The goodness of God coming down like dew. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
We all of us need to be toppled off the throne of self, my dear," he said. "Perched up there the tears of others are never upon our own cheek. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
All we are asked to bear we can bear. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
Water, wind and birdsong were the echoes in this quiet place of a great chiming symphony that was surging around the world. Knee-deep in grasses and moon daisies, Stella stood and listened, swaying a little as the flowers and trees were swaying, her spirit voice singing loudly, though her lips were still, and every pulse in her body beating its hammer strokes in time to the song. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
There was something disruptive about Christmas and not only in the merely material way. The original Christmas had proved exceedingly disrupting to the entire world and the tremors of the original event vibrated through every life year by year. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
Life is a reaching out for something or someone. That is its definition. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
For unbelief was easier than belief, much less demanding and subtly flattering because the agnostic felt himself to be intellectually superior to the believer. And then unbelief haunted by faith, as she knew by experience, produced a rather pleasant nostalgia, while belief haunted by doubt involved real suffering. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
There is no greater tyranny than that of social custom. (Elizabeth Goudge)
Human nature is intractable stuff, hard jagged stuff, the kind of stuff that dreams are wrecked on. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
As this world becomes increasingly ugly, callous and materialistic it needs to be reminded that the old fairy stories are rooted in truth, that imagination is of value, that happy endings do, in fact, occur, and that the blue spring mist that make an ugly street look beautiful is just as real a thing as the street itself. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
Our home, our special country, is for all of us the place where we find liberation; a very difficult word ... that tries to describe something that can't be described but is the only thing worth having. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge
He had discovered that the choice between self-love or love of something other than self offers no escape from suffering either way, it is merely a choice between two woundings, of the pride or of the heart. View quote
Elizabeth Goudge