Always, Rachel Quotes

“The most beautiful and most profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical.… To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their most primitive forms—this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness.”
― Rachel Carson, Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952–1964

“One parting thought: Stan has just volunteered to take care of Roger & Jeffie while you and I go to Sweden!”
― Rachel Carson, Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952–1964

“Only a short time to go.5 I have with me for belated answering the letter from the “girl”—also a graduate of P.C.W.6—who sent me the poetry books. I think you would like her closing—“As we Scottish people say: ‘May the roads rise with you, and the wind be always at your back, and may the Lord hold you in the hollow of his hand.’” It seems appropriate, not only for this rather bumpy flight, but for what is ahead.”
― Rachel Carson, Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952–1964

“Your dear picture is on my bureau and now the wistful look I have loved from the first has an added quality of sadness.”
― Rachel Carson, Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952–1964

“I’m not being cynical, dear. I only wish I could get the same comfort. I fear I have denied formal religion too much, for when the time has come when I feel the need for saying “God help me, God give me strength, God help him, God help her,” the thought always comes “You’ve been too independent too long to have the affrontery to expect God to listen now.” Darling, do you understand what I’m trying to say? And yet when I do read some expression of faith that might help, I want to snatch at it. Perhaps just words do have a way of helping.”
― Rachel Carson, Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952–1964

“If only I could walk this beach with Rachel Carson!”)”
― Rachel Carson, Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952–1964

“I mentioned the duck-billed platypus. And the nursery where Mrs. Martini presides. The platypuses (what is the plural?) had been established in winter quarters down in the lower regions, but all the doors were unlocked and we were conducted down winding stairs and along passageways, as in a medieval dungeon, to the basement room where these strange creatures spend the winter months. They are so very shy that they are poor exhibit animals at any time, but we had an excellent view of the female, who has stronger nerves than her mate.”
― Rachel Carson, Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952–1964

“Now it is Christmas Eve and we are alone together, for I am there in your heart as truly as if I were actually present. You have been looking forward to this little interval of peace and quiet; you see, I know that without being told. And of course that is one of the most precious and wonderful things that has come into being during the past year—that each of us can know, with unquestioning certainty, the sort of thoughts and feelings that are filling the mind and heart of the other.”
― Rachel Carson, Always, Rachel: The Letters of Rachel Carson and Dorothy Freeman, 1952–1964