Dodie Smith Quotes

″‘Pity,’ muttered Cruella as she left. ‘They would make an enchanting fur coat.‘”

“She’s mean enough to scare the spots off a pup!”

“Your pain and anger will pass, but the guilt would remain with you for always.”

“But Missis didn’t have just one puppy. Or two. Or three. She had fifteen!”

″‘Guess what, Pongo?’ said Missis one day. ‘We are going to have puppies!‘”

“And suddenly all the puppies were her puppies; she was their mother—just as Pongo had felt he was their father.”

“One afternoon, a woman came to the house. Her name was Cruella de Vil. ‘What delightful dogs!’ declared Cruella. ‘I will buy them all.‘”

“Like many other much-loved humans, they believed that they owned their dogs, instead of realizing that their dogs owned them.”

“I wonder if there isn’t a catch about having plenty of money? Does it eventually take the pleasure out of things?”

“Just to be in love seemed the most blissful luxury I had ever known. The thought came to me that perhaps it is the loving that counts, not the being loved in return- that perhaps true loving can never know anything but happiness.”

“Writing paper is scarce in this house, and I had no intention of tearing sheets out of this exercise book, which is a superb sixpenny one the Vicar gave me. In the end, Miss Marcy took the middle pages out of her library record, which gave us a pleasant feeling that we were stealing from the government, and then we sat round the table and elected her chairman.”

“Even a broken heart doesn’t warrant a waste of good paper.”

“Truthfulness so often goes with ruthlessness.”

″‘How I wish I lived in a Jane Austen novel!’ I said I’d rather be in a Charlotte Bronte. ‘Which would be nicest- Jane with a touch of Charlotte, or Charlotte with a touch of Jane.‘”

“Cruel blows of fate call for extreme kindness in the family circle.”

“There are hundreds of worries and even sorrows that may come along, but- I think what I really mean is that Rose won’t be wanting things to happen. She will want things to stay just as they are. She will never have the fun of hoping something wonderful and exciting may be just round the corner.”

“When I read a book, I put in all the imagination I can, so that it is almost like writing the book as well as reading it — or rather, it is like living it. It makes reading so much more exciting, but I don’t suppose many people try to do it.”

“Contemplation seems to be about the only luxury that costs nothing.”

“Mr. Dearly wasn’t exactly handsome but he had the kind of face you don’t get tired of.”

“Your pain and anger will pass, but the guilt would remain with you for always.”

“They were lucky enough to own a young married couple of humans named Mr. and Mrs. Dearly, who were gentle, obedient, and unusually intelligent—almost canine at times.”

“She often remembered that building and wondered who owned it. Someone very kind she was sure for in front of every one of the many seats there had been a little carpet-eared puppy-sized dog-bed.”

“Now, carols are always beautiful, but if you are sad they can make you feel sadder.”

“There is a connection between Dalmations and gypsies.”

“The caravans bark but the dogs more on.”

“Any cat can make a house seem haunted.”

“Thirstily and gratefully. ‘My pride as an innkeeper’.”

“Dogs can never speak the language of humans, and humans can never speak the language of dogs. But many dogs can understand almost every word humans say, while humans seldom learn to recognize more than half a dozen barks, if that.”