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There are people to whom agreement is monotony. They require the stimulant of dissension to create drama in their lives.”
She was then a somewhat neurotic girl, subject to uncontrollable outbursts of temper, not without attraction, but unquestionably a difficult person to live with.
“God damn all women! If a man is to have any peace he must steer clear of women!” “You oughtn’t to have married,” I said. “You’re the sort of man who ought to have kept clear of domestic ties.”
I didn’t admire her myself—too violent a type—but I have to admit that she looked incredibly beautiful that afternoon. Women do when they’ve got what they want.
Rather a cruel girl. No, I think merely honest and lacking in imagination. What she wanted herself was the only thing that she could see.
Meredith said: “I’m afraid he’s dead….” We’d forgotten Elsa for the minute. But she let out a sudden cry. It was like the wail of a banshee. She cried: “Dead? Dead?…” And then she ran. I didn’t know anyone could move like that—like a deer—like a stricken thing. And like an avenging Fury, too.
And you must take me to see a bullfight. It must be wonderful. Only I’d like the bull to kill the man—not the other way about. I understand how Roman women felt when they saw a man die. Men aren’t much, but animals are splendid.”
“I’ve sometimes wanted to paint a flight of impossibly-coloured Australian Maccaws alighting on St. Paul’s Cathedral. If I painted you against a nice traditional bit of outdoor landscape, I believe I’d get exactly the same result.”
Nature’s red in tooth and claw, remember.”
One must have the courage to face reality. Without that courage, life is meaningless. The people who do us most harm are the people who shield us from reality.
I found my pupil an interesting and promising character. She had very marked abilities and it was a pleasure to teach her. She was somewhat wild and undisciplined, but these faults arose mainly through high spirits, and I have always preferred my girls to show spirit. An excess of vitality can be trained and guided into paths of real usefulness and achievement.
He was very much a man of moods—possibly owing to what is styled the artistic temperament. I have never seen, myself, why the possession of artistic ability should be supposed to excuse a man from a decent exercise of self-control.
“What is the meaning of all this nonsense?” demanded Miss Williams. “It is to show you that it is the eyes of the mind with which one really sees….”
Listen, you fool, listen to that little man who says he knows.”
I asked Mr. Blake to shut his eyes and try and remember the order of leaving the room. A whiff of jasmine scent stimulated his memory immediately. We are all more influenced by smell than we know.
I do not think you have ever in your life cared about what any other person would feel. If you had, you might be happier.”
