The Rose and the Yew Tree Quotes

“I’ve always suspected that a sense of humour is a kind of parlour trick we civilized folk have taught ourselves as an insurance against disillusionment.”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“You can't win when you're fighting someone who doesn't know there is a fight.”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“You curl yourself up in the window-seat as though life were a book you were reading!”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“Yes, isn't that was politics really boil down to in the end? What people will believe, what they will stand, what they can be induced to think? Never plain fact.”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“Najmanje što čoveku treba u predizbornoj kampanji jesu ljudi koji zaista misle svojom glavom.”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“What is the real truth of a human creature who can appear so differently to different people?'
Robert, who seldom joined in our conversations, moved restlessly and said rather unexpectedly:
'But isn't that just the point? People do appear differently to different people. So do things. Trees, for instance, or the sea. Two painters would give you an entirely different idea of St Loo harbour.'
'You mean one painter would paint it naturalistically and another symbolically?'
Robert shook his head rather wearily. He hated talking about painting. He never could find the words to express what he meant.
'No,' he said. 'They'd actually see it differently. Probably—I don't know—you pick out of everything the things in it which are significant to you.”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“She gave me the impression of one who has been afraid—but has not dared to show fear—and who knows the occasion for fear is now over.”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“Teresa went on, 'You will insist on making your own design for life, Hugh, and trying to fit other people into it. But they've got their own design. Everyone has got their own design—that's what makes life so confusing. Because the designs are interlaced—superimposed.

'Just a few people are born clear-eyed enough to know their own design. I think Isabella was one of them… She was difficult to understand—for us to understand—not because she was complex but because she was simple—almost terrifyingly simple. She recognized nothing but essentials.”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“.... but things are very twisted round nowadays, Norreys. Farmers and solid working-class men are the staunch Conservatives and young men with intellects and degrees and lots of money are Labour, mainly, I suppose, because they don't know the first thing about really working with their hands and haven't an idea what a working man really wants.”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“Tu ti attieni al Tempo. Ma il Tempo non vuol dire assolutamente niente. Cinque minuti e mille anni hanno lo stesso significato. E poi citò piano:" Il momento della rosa e il momento del tasso hanno uguale durata... ".”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“Sa, Norreys, non sono mai riuscito a credere in Dio. Dio Padre, che ha generato le creature e i fiori, Dio che ci ama e si prende cura di noi, Dio che ha creato il mondo. No, non credo in Dio. Ma, a volte, non posso farci nulla, credo in Cristo... perché Cristo è sceso all'inferno... Il suo amore è stato profondo fino a questo punto...
Ha promesso il paradiso ai penitenti. E agli altri? A chi bestemmiava e lo insultava? Cristo è andato all'inferno con loro. Forse dopo... ".”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“Alla fine disse:" Credo che sia perché sembrano tutti belli da toccare, densi... come il velluto... E perché fanno un buon profumo. Le rose non crescono molto bene... crescono male. Una rosa vuole starsene da sola, in un bicchiere... allora sì che è bellissima... ma solo per un periodo molto breve... poi si affloscia e muore. Aspirine, potature e tutte quelle cose non servono a niente - non alle rose - vanno bene per gli altri fiori. Niente può tenere in vita le rose per molto... quanto vorrei che non morissero".”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“Teresa disse che successo e felicità erano due cose del tutto diverse.
"Credo che non possano mai andare insieme" sentenziò".”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree

“Credo che si incontri sempre qualche possibilitàdi fuga... In genere uno se ne rende conto solo dopo, quando si guarda indietro, ma è lì...”
― Mary Westmacott, The Rose and the Yew Tree