The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion Quotes

“If you want quality, you must work for it. You wake and you strive and you make decisions to sacrifice. An easy life will never bring the kind of satisfaction the soul craves. I despise people who lounge all day as if there weren’t more important ideas than comfort, complacency, and appetite. Stretch yourself! Be industrious! Do something!”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“A year is such an odd packet of time. It seems so ordered: a dozen months, a handful of seasons. Deceptively even. Make no mistake, it will go awry every which way. Balance? Impossible. Control? Not worth mentioning the word. Some days cling and others run, many shifting just enough to incommode but give no great variety. And then out of the pedestrian blue comes an explosion which reduces all plans to smithereens. The reward for making it through? Getting to do it again.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“It can be a terrible task, that of learning to divide the light from dark, for we agonize beneath the weight that someone we care for might be caught in the twilight of our indecision, our ignorance, our selfishness, or our fear.” Finally, he looked at me. “But when I recall that with the light of God comes the abundance of God, I take courage. Virtus Apprime.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“Spring gives us more than we deserve.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“As for how we’ve varied, I would take my path a thousand times over in a thousand lives, however difficult—the art, the colour, the way that light bends gold around my memories, even the unhappy ones. I have known love and lost. I was gifted so much.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“Maybe I’m coming down with something. Like a cold, or an allergy to people in general.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“there is never time for what one plans to do, only what one does.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“There is a lightness that comes after truth is spoken plainly”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“Is that not a good deal of extra work?” “What should that matter?” he said as if slamming his words against the table. “We have an opportunity to create order from chaos. One book, one year. Simple. Elegant. Certainly it’s extra work! Fine things, fine ideas, fine people, require work! This entire age is indulgent and selfish and shortsighted, complaining that easy things are not as easy as they’d like.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“Silence among friends forms a pleasant shape.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“It held. We, the four of us, held.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“These long days out of doors feel like coming home to a place to which I've always held a key, but was told it should be put away. But, oh! There has been a sovereignty of self in this place--of body, of spirit, of the intangible magic which sews the two together. To shout and run. To lie in tall grasses and watch the wind play the sunlight both true and false. To feel the building threat of rain and watch it crash to earth from the tenuous safety beneath a tree rather than from behind a window.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“You know those rare afternoons when sunlight is slanting across the fields but it's raining? It always feels like such a thing should be impossible, and no matter what else has happened that day, you feel absurdly happy? That is how you look now, thinking of him.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“The truth of the matter is I find myself thinking of him. Pierce. Not Theseus. Often. I like Niall Pierce. I am more than fond of Niall Pierce. When he walks into the room, I want him to come stand beside me. It’s only getting worse, isn’t it? I should have simply ended with, I like Niall Pierce, and saved myself the embarrassment.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“If there is one thing I’ve learned from my vicar,” I replied, “it’s that I do not have to explain myself to anyone.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“Sometimes we are too sad to trust in anything, even happiness,” Mrs. Morrow replied.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“Gusts of wind like cannon fire shaking the windows, as if the storm were being thrown against Lapis Lazuli by the handfuls. Warlike and belligerent, only a thin roof between myself and each clap of thunder. The battle raged until dawn, water streaming off the roof and down the window like an extra sheet of glass, distorting the grey morning.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“There’s nothing worse than someone who would shrink their generosity for the sake of keeping what they want,”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“But it’s a tangled thing and I don’t understand all the reasons why. I feel like a jumble drawer inside. You know the sort. The drawer where every odd thing is placed because you’re not certain where it is to go? I need time to sort it out. Both what is past”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“My life isn’t always my preferred method”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“Innocent sleep,” he quoted. “Sleep that soothes away all our worries. Sleep that puts each day to rest. Sleep that relieves the weary labourer and heals hurt minds. Sleep”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“Fine things, fine ideas, fine people, require work! This entire age is indulgent and selfish and shortsighted, complaining that easy things are not as easy as they’d like.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“There is no worse evil than a bad woman. –Euripides When Aunt Eugenia sends a missive, run far, far away. –Emma M. Lion”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“If I were to go through this life exclusively on what I think, I would not get very far. However amusing it may prove to be.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“I took my tentative hope with me.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“This ruse with Islington is advantageous to your not being left behind, but an actual guardian?” Hawkes shook his head. “That isn’t what you need.” “What is it you think I need?” He looked as if it were obvious. “To remain undaunted.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“He lifted a hand before him, half shake of a fist, half artistic passion. “If you want quality, you must work for it. You wake and you strive and you make decisions to sacrifice. An easy life will never bring the kind of satisfaction the soul craves. I despise people who lounge all day as if there weren’t more important ideas than comfort, complacency, and appetite. Stretch yourself! Be industrious! Do something!” He was perspiring, his strong grip on the words just shy of a yell. I sat agog.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“Truth be told, there are things one wouldn’t wish on one’s worst enemy.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“We mostly managed protocol one.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7

“Even the tea tastes stale. My entire life digresses.”
― Beth Brower, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion: Vol. 7