Elizabeth Goudge Quotes

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Birds Children Earth Flowers Giving Heart Pain

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.

Elizabeth Goudge

Life, Respect, Nature

64 Copy quote
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.

Elizabeth Goudge

Beautiful, Spring, Real

20 Copy quote
There always comes, I think, a sort of peak in suffering at which either you win over your pain or your pain wins over you, according as to whether you can, or cannot, call up that extra ounce of endurance that helps you to break through the circle of yourself and do the hitherto impossible. That extra ounce carries you through 'le dernier quart d' heure.' Psychologist have a name for it, I believe. Christians call it the Grace of God.

Elizabeth Goudge

Christian, Pain, Believe

Elizabeth Goudge (1942). “The Castle on the Hill”

14 Copy quote
The sun is still there... even if clouds drift over it. Once you have experienced the reality of sunshine you may weep, but you will never feel ice about your heart again.

Elizabeth Goudge

Inspirational, Heart, Sunshine

Elizabeth Goudge (1958). “The White Witch”

23 Copy quote
She long ago accepted the fact that happiness is like, swallows in spring. It may come and nest under your eaves or it may not. You cannot command it.

Elizabeth Goudge

Easter, Spring, Long

"The White Witch".

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The child in us is always there, you know, and it's the best part of us, the winged part that travels farthest.

Elizabeth Goudge

Children, Childhood, Knows

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Because of course she had known she must go. She always did the thing because in obedience lay the integrity that God asked of her. If anyone had asked her what she meant by integrity she would not have been able to tell them but she had seen it once like a picture in her mind, a root going down into the earth and drinking deeply there. No one was really alive without that root.

Elizabeth Goudge

Integrity, Drinking, Roots

16 Copy quote
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.

Elizabeth Goudge

Spring, Mistake, Flower

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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.

Elizabeth Goudge

Country, Home, Special

Elizabeth Goudge (2017). “Green Dolphin Country”, p.128, Hachette UK

14 Copy quote
Could you understand the meaning of light if there were no darkness to point the contrast? Day and night, life and death, love and hatred, since none of these things can have any being at all apart from the existence of the other, you can no more separate them than you can separate the two sides of a coin.

Elizabeth Goudge

Night, Light, Life And Death

"Green Dolphin Country".

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

Elizabeth Goudge

Spring, Should Have, Boredom

Elizabeth Goudge (2012). “The Rosemary Tree”, p.76, Hachette UK

15 Copy quote
Peace ... was contingent upon a certain disposition of the soul, a disposition to receive the gift that only detachment from self made possible.

Elizabeth Goudge

Self, Soul, Detachment

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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.

Elizabeth Goudge

Book, Reading, Storm

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All human beings have their otherness and it is that which cries out to the heart.

Elizabeth Goudge

Heart, Empathy, Cry

Elizabeth Goudge (2012). “The White Witch”, p.427, Hachette UK

16 Copy quote
to know perfect happiness a woman may be a mother, but must be a grandmother.

Elizabeth Goudge

Mother, Perfect, Grandparent

Elizabeth Goudge (1948). “Pilgrim's Inn”

4 Copy quote
What is the scent of water?" "Renewal. The goodness of God coming down like dew.

Elizabeth Goudge

Water, Dew, Scent

Elizabeth Goudge (1963). “The Scent of Water”

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For she had discovered that as well as the evil web there was another. This too bound spirits together, but not in a tangle, it was a patterned web and one could see the silver pattern when the sun shone upon it. It seemed much frailer than the dark tangle, that had a hideous strength, but it might not be so always, not in the final reckoning. (The Child from the Sea)

Elizabeth Goudge

Children, Dark, Sea

7 Copy quote
Not quite birds, as they were not quite flowers, mysterious and fascinating as are all indeterminate creatures.

Elizabeth Goudge

Flower, Butterfly, Bird

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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.

Elizabeth Goudge

Faith, Night, Doubt

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The lovers of life, they are children at heart always in their wonder and delight, but they do not grab.

Elizabeth Goudge

Children, Passion, Heart

Elizabeth Goudge (1948). “Pilgrim's Inn”

6 Copy quote
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.

Elizabeth Goudge

People, Humanity, Comfort

Elizabeth Goudge (2001). “The Little White Horse”, p.8, Penguin

4 Copy quote
[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.

Elizabeth Goudge

Believe, Events, Hated

Elizabeth Goudge (1944). “Green Dolphin Street”

2 Copy quote
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.

Elizabeth Goudge

Heart, Pride, Self

Elizabeth Goudge (1958). “The White Witch”

5 Copy quote
...there began to come to her a first dim realization of God's humility. Rejected by the proud in His own right by what humble means He chose to succor them; through the spirit of a child, a poor gypsy or an old man, by a song perhaps, or even it might be by the fall of a leaf or the scent of a flower. For His infinite and humble patience nothing was too small to advance His purpose of salvation and eternity was not too long for its accomplishment.

Elizabeth Goudge

Song, Children, Flower

Elizabeth Goudge (1958). “The White Witch”

3 Copy quote
Most of the basic truths of life sound absurd at first hearing.

Elizabeth Goudge

Truth, Sound, Hearing

Elizabeth Goudge (1944). “Green Dolphin Street”

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Born: April 24, 1900
Died: April 1, 1984
Occupation: Author
Cite this Page: Citation

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