Quotes · verified word for word in the text
Elizabeth Von Arnim quotes
14 quotes from 2 of Elizabeth Von Arnim’s books on this site, book by book. Each quote is copied exactly from the book’s text in this site’s reader (the Project Gutenberg e-text named under each book) and links to its passage; when this page was built, every quote was checked word for word against that text. Quotes we could not find in a book we host are not listed.
The Enchanted April
Why, it would really be being unselfish to go away and be happy for a little, because we would come back so much nicer.
— Spoken by a character · Chapter 1
Reading was very important; the proper exercise and development of one’s mind was a paramount duty.
Why couldn’t two unhappy people refresh each other on their way through this dusty business of life by a little talk—real, natural talk, about what they felt, what they would have liked, what they still tried to hope?
In bed by herself: adorable condition.
Always being there was the essential secret for a wife.
Was it possible that loneliness had nothing to do with circumstances, but only with the way one met them?
They left off talking. They ceased to mention heaven. They were just cups of acceptance.
Now she had taken off all her goodness and left it behind her like a heap of rain-sodden clothes, and she only felt joy.
“But there are no men here,” said Mrs. Wilkins, “so how can it be improper? Have you noticed,” she inquired of Mrs. Fisher, who endeavoured to pretend she did not hear, “how difficult it is to be improper without men?”
— Mrs. Wilkins · Chapter 12
Beauty made you love, and love made you beautiful. . .
Elizabeth and Her German Garden
What a resurrection of beauty there is in my garden, and of brightest hope in my heart!
I was for ever making plans, and if nothing came of them, what did it matter? The mere making had been a joy.
Oh, my dear, relations are like drugs,—useful sometimes, and even pleasant, if taken in small quantities and seldom, but dreadfully pernicious on the whole, and the truly wise avoid them.
— Spoken by a character
Not the least of my many blessings is that we have only one neighbour. If you have to have neighbours at all, it is at least a mercy that there should be only one; for with people dropping in at all hours and wanting to talk to you, how are you to get on with your life, I should like to know, and read your books, and dream your dreams to your satisfaction?