Dodie Smith Quotes

The family - that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.

I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring.

Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.

Time takes the ugliness and horror out of death and turns it into beauty.

What is it about the English countryside — why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?

Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing.

It's a beautiful sight to see good dancers doing simple steps. It's a painful sight to see beginners doing complicated patterns.

Ham with mustard is a meal of glory

Like many other much-loved humans, they believed that they owned their dogs, instead of realizing that their dogs owned them.

I suppose the best kind of spring morning is the best weather God has to offer.

Stew's so comforting on a rainy day.

I shouldn't think even millionaires could eat anything nicer than new bread and real butter and honey for tea.

And no bathroom on earth will make up for marrying a bearded man you hate.

I like seeing people when they can't see me.

a loss of sensibility follows a loss of innocence, at once a penalty and a compensation.

Why is summer mist romantic and autumn mist just sad?

Though he had very little Latin beyond "Cave canem," he had, as a young dog, devoured Shakespeare (in a tasty leather binding).

extreme happiness invites religion almost as much as extreme misery.

I am a restlessness inside a stillness inside a restlessness.

I only want to write. And there's no college for that except life.

Perhaps watching someone you love suffer can teach you even more than suffering yourself can.

Perhaps if I make myself write I shall find out what is wrong with me.

People's clothes ought to be buried with them.

When things mean a very great deal to you, exciting anticipation just isn't safe.

Walking down Belmotte was the oddest sensation-- every step took us deeper into the mist until at last it closed over our heads. It was like being drowned in the ghost of water.

Everything in the least connected with him has value for me; if someone even mentions his name it is like a little present to me-and I long to mention it myself

It is rather exciting to write by moonlight.

Topaz was wonderfully patient - but sometimes I wonder if it is not only patience, but also a faint resemblance to cows.

What a tiny list of friends I have! All my fault. I less and less want to see people.

Still, looking through the old volumes was soothing, because thinking of the past made the present seem a little less real.

I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.

I wanted so terribly to be good to him.

Father says hot water can be as stimulating as an alcoholic drink and though I never come by one...I can well believe it.

The Devil's out of fashion.

Truthfulness so often goes with ruthlessness.

Only half a page left now. Shall I fill it with 'I love you, I love you'-- like father's page of cats on the mat? No. Even a broken heart doesn't warrant a waste of good paper.

Thinking of death--strange, beautiful, terrible and a long way off--made me feel happier than ever.

My God - it's a green child!" said the American. "What is this place - the House of Usher?

Rose doesn’t like the flat country, but I always did – flat country seems to give the sky such a chance.

And who says you always have to understand things? You can like them without understanding them -- like 'em better sometimes.

Prayer's a very tricky business.

Even a broken heart doesn't warrant a waste of good paper.

I could marry the Devil himself if he had some money.

I wonder if there isn't a catch about having plenty of money? Does it eventually take the pleasure out of things?

There is something revolting about the way girls' minds so often jump to marriage long before they jump to love.

...With stories even a page can take me hours, but the truth seems to flow out as fast as I can get it down.

I should rather like to tear these last pages out of the book. Shall I? No-a journal ought not to cheat.

I have noticed that rooms which are extra clean feel extra cold

How can a young man like to wear a beard?

I found it quite easy to carry on a casual conversation it was as if my real feelings were down fathoms deep in my mind and what we said was just a feathery surface spray.