Doris Lessing Quotes - Page 7

Quotes about:

• Perhaps it is a fault of the species who thrive in peace, mutual help, aspirations for more of the same -- to forget that outside these borders dwell very different types of mind, feeding on different fuel.

  Doris Lessing

  Mutual Help, Mind, Different

  Doris Lessing (2012). “Shikasta (Canopus in Argos: Archives Series, Book 1)”, p.40, HarperCollins UK

  4 Copy quote

• Better Counsel comes overnight.

  Doris Lessing

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• One certainty we all accept is the condition of being uncertain and insecure.

  Doris Lessing

  Insecure, Accepting, Uncertain

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• The critics slap labels on you and then expect you to talk inside their terms.

  Doris Lessing

  Labels, Term, Critics

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• All things come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not.

  Doris Lessing

  Wicked, Events, Ecclesiastes

  Doris Lessing (1999). “Ecclesiastes or, The Preacher”, p.30, Canongate Books

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• We use our parents like recurring dreams, to be entered into when needed.

  Doris Lessing

  Dream, Parent, Use

  69 Copy quote

• If she had been left alone she would have gone on, in her own way, enjoying herself thoroughly, until people found one day that she had turned imperceptibly into one of those women who have become old without ever having been middle aged: a little withered, a little acid, hard as nails, sentimentally kindhearted, and addicted to religion or small dogs.

  Doris Lessing

  Dog, People, One Day

  Doris Lessing (1973). “The Grass is Singing”, p.46, Heinemann

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• What is charm then? The free giving of a grace, the spending of something given by nature in her role of spendthrift ... something extra, superfluous, unnecessary, essentially a power thrown away.

  Doris Lessing

  Giving, Grace, Roles

  'Particularly Cats' (1967) ch. 9

  9 Copy quote

• I wanted to highlight that whole dreadful process in book publishing that 'nothing succeeds like success.'

  Doris Lessing

  Book, Succeed, Process

  "Doris Lessing Says She Used Pen Name to Show New Writers' Difficulties" by Edwin McDowell, archive.nytimes.com. September 23, 1984.

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• I never stopped reading.

  Doris Lessing

  Reading

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• I am a person who continually destroys the possibilities of a future because of the numbers of alternative viewpoints I can focus on the present.

  Doris Lessing

  Numbers, Focus, Alternatives

  Doris May Lessing (1994). “The Golden Notebook”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• The world is only tolerable because of the empty places in it...when the world's filled up, we'll have to get hold of a star. Any star. Venus, or Mars. Get hold of it and leave it empty. Man needs an empty space somewhere for his spirit to rest in.

  Doris Lessing

  Stars, Men, Filled Up

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• Anna, there's something very arrogant about insisting on the right to be right.

  Doris Lessing

  Arrogant, Anna, Insisting

  Doris May Lessing (1994). “The Golden Notebook”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• I am interested only in stretching myself, on living as fully as I can.

  Doris Lessing

  Stretching, I Can

  Doris May Lessing (1994). “The Golden Notebook”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber, for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.

  Doris Lessing

  Bible, Kings, Air

  Doris Lessing (1999). “Ecclesiastes or, The Preacher”, p.34, Canongate Books

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• Little Tamar, forget the long ago. We are here and we are now, and that is all. We are making a new start.

  Doris Lessing

  Long Ago, New Start, Littles

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• But children can't be a center of life and a reason for being. They can be a thousand things that are delightful, interesting, satisfying, but they can't be a well-spring to live from. Or they shouldn't be.

  Doris Lessing

  Children, Spring, Interesting

  4 Copy quote

• Is there any delight as great as the child's discovering ability?

  Doris Lessing

  Children, Delight, Ability

  Doris May Lessing (1994). “Under my skin”

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• The Freudians describe the conscious as a small lit area, all white, and the unconscious as a great dark marsh full of monsters. In their view, the monsters reach up, grab you by the ankles, and try to drag you down.

  Doris Lessing

  Dark, Views, White

  Doris May Lessing (1996). “Putting questions differently: interviews with Doris Lessing, 1964-1994”

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• Cats mean kittens, plentiful and frequent.

  Doris Lessing

  Mean, Cat, Kitten

  Doris Lessing (2012). “On Cats”, p.9, HarperCollins UK

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• The white man has settled like a locust over Africa, and, like the locusts in early morning, cannot take flight for the heaviness of the dew on their wings. But the dew that weights the white man is the money that he makes from our labor.

  Doris Lessing

  Morning, Men, White Man

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• Advice to young writers? Always the same advice: learn to trust our own judgment.

  Doris Lessing

  Advice, Young Writers, Judgment

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• I don't think that the feminist movement has done much for the characters of women.

  Doris Lessing

  Character, Thinking, Feminist

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• As the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the sons of men snared in evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.

  Doris Lessing

  Taken, Son, Men

  Doris Lessing (1999). “Ecclesiastes or, The Preacher”, p.31, Canongate Books

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• I'm very unhappy when I'm not writing.

  Doris Lessing

  Writing, Unhappy

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