WisdomArea — Wisdom & Inspiration

"If someone even mentions his name it is like a little present to me - and I long to mention it myself. I start subjects leading up to it, and then I feel myself going red. I keep swearing to myself not to speak to him again - and then an opportunity occurs and I jump at it!"

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"And what I thought most about was luxury. I had never realised before that it is more than just having things; it makes the very air feel different. And I felt different, breathing the air: relaxed, lazy, still sad but with the edge taken off the sadness. Perhaps the effect wears off in time, or perhaps you don't notice it if you are born to it, but it does seem to me that the climate of richness must always be a little dulling to the senses. Perhaps it takes the edge off joy as well as off sorrow."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"I wanted so terribly to be good to him."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"Once I really looked at the sky, I wanted to go on looking; it seemed to draw me towards it and make me listen hard, though there was nothing to listen to, not so much as a twig was stirring."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"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, I start subjects leading up to it, and then feel myself going red. I keep swearing to myself not to speak of him again- and then an opportunity occurs and I jump at it."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"Stew's so comforting on a rainy day."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"...[I]f I don't get going soon, the whole impetus may die---and if that happens, well, I really shall consider a long, restful plunge into insanity. Sometimes the abyss yawns very attractively."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"He laughed a little, in an odd, nervous kind of way. "Because if I don't get going soon, the whole impetus may die--and if that happens, well, I really shall consider a long, restful plunge into insanity. Sometimes the abyss yawns very attractively."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

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

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"The Devil's out of fashion."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"I have really sinned. I am going to pause now, and sit here on the mound repenting in deepest shame..."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"It is rather exciting to write by moonlight."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"We were restless for ages... After a while I heard an owl hooting and calmed myself by thinking of it flying over the dark fields – and then I remembered it would be pouncing on mice. I love owls, but I wish God had made them vegetarian."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"I couldn't make it out - why you ever let me, I mean. I understand now. Things like that happen when you're in love with the wrong person. Worse things. Things you never forgive yourself for."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"Of course, he sees creation as discovery. I mean, everything is already created, by the first cause---call it God if you like; everything is already there to be found."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"Then I told myself that as I never gave the Church a thought when I was feeling happy, I could hardly expect it to do anything for me when I wasn't. You can't get insurance money without paying in premiums."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"The thought came to me that perhaps it is the loving that counts, not the being loved in return - that perhaps true loving can never know anything but happiness."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"I didn't make any mistake. I know that when he nearly asked me to marry him it was only on impulse It is part if a follow-my-leader game of second-best we have all been playing - Rose with Simon, Simon with me, me with Stephen and Stephen, I suppose, with that detestable Leda Fox-Cotton. It isn't a very good game; the people you play it with are apt to get hurt."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"Now, paper and pencils," said Miss Marcy, clapping her hands. Writing paper is scarce in this house, and I had no intention of tearing sheets out of this exercise book, which is a superb sixpenny one the Vicar gave me. In the end, Miss Marcy took the middle pages out of her library record, which gave us a pleasant feeling that we were stealing from the government, and then we sat round the table and elected her chairman."

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

"A mist is rolling over the fields. Why is a summer mist romantic and autumn mist just sad?"

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle

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