Flora Thompson quotes

Other days, other ways; and, although they have now been greatly improved upon, the old country midwives did at least succeed in bringing into the world many generations of our forefathers, or where should we be now? -. (Flora Thompson)
Special qualities are required of the essayist. A poem or a novel may spring from the inner consciousness of an author.. reasoning powers must be brought to reinforce imagination.
Flora Thompson
Nature knows no calendar, the seasons move in a circle.
Flora Thompson
Manner and morals have improved, improved wages and world travel during the war have had effect, and the farm labourer now is an intelligent, self respecting workman, on a level at least with the town artisan. The village rustic of the past no longer exists outside of the comic papers.
Flora Thompson
Unlike most great talkers, the rooks are good workers, too.
Flora Thompson
We cannot bring the good old days back but, if we must eat mass-made foods, get laws passed to insist upon its goodness and purity.
Flora Thompson
Alas! in nature, as in art, we gain only according to our capacity. You cannot put an ocean in a pint pot.
Flora Thompson
Words as to the inner emotions do not come readily to me, for I have led an isolated life mentally and spiritually.
Flora Thompson
It was still the custom of the countryside to build with local materials produced as close to the selected site as possible, for transport was difficult, even the best of country roads being more fitted for horseback traffic rather than heavy loads.
Flora Thompson
Now, with the glamour of the past upon them we are inclined to look back on old world festivities with regret and consider present day dances as a poor substitute for the old. From an artistic point of view, they maybe, but in individual freedom and independence of spirit they mark a stage upward.
Flora Thompson
Some great poet or philosopher once said that " he who goes to nature for comfort must go to her empty handed ", and I think he was right. (Flora Thompson)
Pale purple as the bloom om a ripe plum, veined with the gold of late flowering gorse, set with small slender birches,just turning yellow,with red-berried rowans and thicket of bracken, the heath lay steeped in sunshine.
Flora Thompson
It was ordained that our earthly pilgrammage should be a struggle, and life would be a tame affair if everything went smoothly.
Flora Thompson
It is the fashion to talk of our changing climate and bewail the hot summers and hard winters of tradition, but how seldom we pause to marvel at the remarkable constancy of the weather from year to year.
Flora Thompson
No age can have everthing and in material ways ours is more fortunate than any preceding one. Our ancestors appear to have mastered the art of living better than we are able to when an easy conscience, largely due to the unshaken faith of the time, left a marging of spiritual energy with which to enjoy life.
Flora Thompson
I do not compare the past with the present without a prejudice for either, but, great as the improvement in country life is in many respects, it seems a pity the old cheap, wholesome dishes have gone to make way for tinned and preserved foods.
Flora Thompson
The harvest-home or supper is a thing of the past. To those who feel the fascination of the past this may appear sad, but it is not so really for, even while it existed, this surface goodwill was often an empty show.
Flora Thompson
What is charm, it is not a moral quality.. it is not intellectual for no man by much thinking is able to add a grain of it to his personality. One either has it or has it not, it cannot be acquired or even cultivated. It is not physical even.. it seems to be added to the human personality, an aura, a glow, the gold dust upon a butterfly's wing, the bloom upon a peach.
Flora Thompson
So quiet and subtle is the beauty of December that escapes the notice of many people their whole lives through.. Colour gives way to form. every branch distinct, in a delicate tracery against the sky.. new vistas obscured all Summer by leafage, now open up.
Flora Thompson
Any artwork needs time and patience and needs above all a quiet mind.
Flora Thompson
Our poet's singing lips are dumb: This his last gift, to us has brought The pain pressed vintage of his thought His life of song, his life of pain, And, being dead, he speaks again. (Flora Thompson)
I don't believe in folks making a sort of mystery of themselves. I believe in being neighbourly, I do.
Flora Thompson
Other days, other ways! For myself I would desire a combination of old romance and modern machinery. No housewife would wish to the return to the era when everything, had to be made at home by candlelight and which lost to us who knows how many women poets and painters!
Flora Thompson
Poverty's no disgrace, but 'tis a great inconvenience' was a common saying among the Lark Rise people.
Flora Thompson
They didn't want votes, either. A vote wasn't going to raise wages or make bread cheaper. What did it matter to them what Government was in power.
Flora Thompson