Elizabeth Goudge Quotes

“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…”

“What is the scent of water?"
"Renewal. The goodness of God coming down like dew.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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;”

“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.”

“Life is a reaching out for something or someone. That is its definition.”

“There is always something particularly delightful about exceptions to a rule.”

“In a world where thrushes sing and willow trees are golden in the spring, boredom should have been included among the seven deadly sins.”

“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.”

“He grinned at her, and she grinned at him, and it seemed to Maria that suddenly the sun came out.”

“The human desire to be understood is never quite sincere. It is on our own terms that we desire to be understood, not on the terms of truth.”

“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.”

“There is no greater tyranny than that of social custom.”

“A sense of identity is the gift of love, and only love can give it.”

“Human nature is intractable stuff, hard jagged stuff, the kind of stuff that dreams are wrecked on.”

“We all of us try to make God in our image. It is one of the worst of our temptations.”