George Macdonald Quotes

“As a world that has no well, Darkly bright in forest dell; As a world without the gleam Of the downward-going stream; As a world without the glance Of the ocean’s fair expanse; As a world where never rain Glittered on the sunny plain; —Such, my heart, thy world would be, If no love did flow in thee.”

“It is so silly of people to fancy that old age means crookedness and witheredness and feebleness and sticks and spectacles and rheumatism and forgetfulness! It is so silly! Old age has nothing whatever to do with all that. The right old age means strength and beauty and mirth and courage and clear eyes and strong painless limbs.”

“Death alone from death can save. Love is death, and so is brave. Love can fill the deepest grave. Love loves on beneath the wave.”

“He could not tell whether the queen meant light-haired or light-heired; for why might she not aspirate her vowels when she was ex-asperated herself?”

“Love and water brought back all her strength.”

“But the princess had to learn to walk, before they could be married with any propriety. And this was not so easy at her time of life, for she could walk no more than a baby. She was always falling down and hurting herself. ‘Is this the gravity you used to make so much of?’ said she one day to the prince, as he raised her from the floor. ‘For my part, I was a great deal more comfortable without it.’ ‘No, no, that’s not it. This is it,’ replied the prince, as he took her up, and carried her about like a baby, kissing her all the time. ‘This is gravity.’ ‘That’s better,’ said she. ‘I don’t mind that so much.’ And she smiled the sweetest, loveliest smile in the prince’s face. And she gave him one little kiss in return for all his; and he thought them overpaid, for he was beside himself with delight. I fear she complained of her gravity more than once after this, notwithstanding.”

“Here I should like to remark, for the sake of princes and princesses in general, that it is a low and contemptible thing to refuse to confess a fault, or even an error. If a true princess has done wrong, she is always uneasy until she has had an opportunity of throwing the wrongness away from her by saying: ‘I did it; and I wish I had not; and I am sorry for having done it.‘”

“One day he lost sight of his retinue in a great forest. These forests are very useful in delivering princes from their courtiers, like a sieve that keeps back the bran. Then the princes get away to follow their fortunes. In this they have the advantage of the princesses, who are forced to marry before they have had a bit of fun. I wish our princesses got lost in a forest sometimes.”

“The princess burst into a passion of tears, and fell on the floor. There she lay for an hour and her tears never ceased.”

“That is the way fear serves us: it always sides with the thing we are afraid of.”

“Duplicity of any sort is exceedingly objectionable between married people of any rank, not to say kings and queens; and the most objectionable form duplicity can assume is that of punning.”

“What business had you to pull me down out of the water, and throw me to the bottom of the air? I never did you any harm.”

″‘They think so much of themselves!’ said his mother. ‘Small creatures always do. The bantam is the proudest cock in my little yard.‘”

“But instead of being afraid, she felt more than happy—perfectly blissful.”

“We are all very anxious to be understood, and it is very hard not to be. But there is one thing much more necessary.′ ‘What is that, grandmother?’ ‘To understand other people.‘”

″‘One, two, Hit and hew! Three, four, Blast and bore!‘”

“People must believe what they can, and those who believe more must not be hard upon those who believe less. I doubt if you would have believed it all yourself if you hadn’t seen some of it.”

“All the queens of my acquaintance have children, some three, some seven, and some as many as twelve; and my queen has not one. I feel ill-used.”

″‘My dear child,’ said the king, “you must be aware by this time that you are not exactly like other people.‘”

“One day he lost sight of his retinue in a great forest. These forests are very useful in delivering princes from their courtiers, like a sieve that keeps back the bran. Then the princes get away to follow their fortunes. In this they have the advantage of the princesses, who are forced to marry before they have had a bit of fun. I wish our princesses got lost in a forest sometimes.”

″‘How do you like falling in?’ said the princess. ‘Beyond everything,’ answered he; ‘for I have fallen in with the only perfect creature I ever saw.’

“Every little girl knows how dreadful it is to find a room empty where she thought somebody was.”

“But her tale, as he did not believe more than half of it, left everything as unaccountable to him as before, and he was nearly as much perplexed as to what he must think of the princess.”

“Then she would laugh like the very spirit of fun; only in her laugh there was something missing. What it was, I find myself unable to describe. I think it was a certain tone, depending upon the possibility of sorrow—morbidezza, perhaps. She never smiled.”

“The king, who was the wisest man in the kingdom, knew well there was a time when things must be done and questions left till afterwards.”

“But at the same time she seemed more sedate than usual. Perhaps that was because a great pleasure spoils laughing.”

“If the nation could not provide one hero, it was time it should perish.”

“But the lake, your highness!” said the chamberlain, who, roused by the noise, came in, in his nightcap. “Go and drown yourself in it!” she said. This was the last rudeness of which the princess was ever guilty; and one must allow that she had good cause to feel provoked with the lord chamberlain.

“The truest princess is just the one who loves all her brothers and sisters best, and who is most able to do them good by being humble towards them.”

“When she was angry her little eyes flashed blue. When she hated anybody, they shone yellow and green. What they looked like when she loved anybody, I do not know; for I never heard of her loving anybody but herself, and I do not think she could have managed that if she had not somehow got used to herself.”

″‘I don’t see anything,’ persisted Curdie. ‘Then you must believe without seeing,’ said the princess; ‘for you can’t deny it has brought us out of the mountain.‘”

“It means, my love, that I did not mean to show myself. Curdie is not yet able to believe some things. Seeing is not believing—it is only seeing.”

“I’m very much obliged to you, Irene, for getting me out of that hole, but I wish you hadn’t made a fool of me afterwards.”

“When the princess awoke from the sweetest of sleeps, she found her nurse bending over her, the housekeeper looking over the nurse’s shoulder, and the laundry-maid looking over the housekeeper’s.”

“You ought to be very happy at having got away from those demons, and instead of that I never saw you so gloomy. There must be something more.”

“She was a witch; and when she bewitched anybody, he very soon had enough of it; for she beat all the wicked fairies in wickedness, and all the clever ones in cleverness.”

“Perhaps the best thing for the princess would have been to fall in love. But how a princess who had no gravity could fall into anything is a difficulty—perhaps the difficulty. As for her own feelings on the subject, she did not even know that there was such a beehive of honey and stings to be fallen into.”

“But, remember, it may seem to you a very roundabout way indeed, and you must not doubt the thread. Of one thing you may be sure, that while you hold it, I hold it too.‘”

“I’ve nobody to spin for just at present. I never spin without knowing for whom I am spinning.”

“So the prince and princess lived and were happy; and had crowns of gold, and clothes of cloth, and shoes of leather, and children of boys and girls, not one of whom was ever known, on the most critical occasion, to lose the smallest atom of his or her due proportion of gravity.”

“Her face was fair and pretty, with eyes like two bits of night sky, each with a star dissolved in the blue.”

“It is when people do wrong things wilfully that they are the more likely to do them again.”

“Perhaps you may think me foolish, but until I am sure there is nothing in my present fancy, I am more determined than ever to go on with my observations.”

″ ‘No, it will not,’ replied the voice. ‘You shall not be the worse for it - I promise you that. You will be much the better for it. Just believe what I say, and do as I tell you.’ ”

“There was a light in one window that looked friendly. As long as he could see that, Diamond did not feel quite alone or lonely. But all at once, the light went almost out. Then indeed, he felt that it was dreadful to be out in the night alone, when every body else was gone to bed! That was more than he could bear and it was not strange that he burst out crying.”

“The earth was rushing past like a river or a sea below him. Trees and water and green grass hurried away beneath. Now there was nothing but the roofs of houses sweeping along like a great torrent of stones and rocks. Chimney’s fell and tiles flew from the roofs. There was a great roaring for the wind was dashing against London like a stormy sea. Diamond, of course, at the back of North Wind was in a calm but he could hear it.”

“Nothing ever went wrong at the back of the north wind and the only thing one ever missed was someone he loved who had not yet got there. But if one at the back of the north wind wanted to know how things were going with any one he loved, he had only to go to a certain tree, and climb up and sit down in the branches.”

“No, I could not be cruel, and yet I must often do what looks cruel to those who do not know. But the people they say I drown, I only carry away to the back of the north wind - only I never saw the place.”

“But his eyes grew tired, and more and more tired. His eyelids grew so heavy that they would keep tumbling down over his eyes. He kept lifting them and lifting them. But everytime, they were heavier than the last. It was no use! They were too much for him. Sometimes before he got them halfway up, down they went again. At length, he gave it up quite, and the moment he gave it up, he was fast asleep!”

“He walked toward her instantly and put out his hand to lay it on her. There was nothing there but intense cold. All grew white about him. He groped on further. The white thickened about him and he felt himself stumbling and falling. But as he fell, he rolled over the threshold. It was thus that Diamond got to the back of the north wind.”

″ ‘Merriest, merriest, merriest,’ murmured Diamond as he sank deeper and deeper in sleep. ‘That is what the song of the river is telling me. Even I can be merry and cheerful - and that will help some. And so I will - when - I - wake - up - again.’ And he went off sound asleep.”

“He called this place his nest. He went to it by going up a little rope ladder that hung from a branch of the big beech tree. When he reached the limb the rope hung from, he went climbing higher and higher. Up among the leafy branches and away at the top, he found a safe and comfortable seat which he called his nest.”

“I can see the first star peeping out of the sky. I don’t see anything more except a few leaves and the big sky over me. It goes swinging about. The earth is all behind my back. There comes another star! The wind with its kisses makes me feel as if I were up in North Wind’s arms.”