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Daphne du Maurier

Daphne du Maurier Quotes

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Famous Daphne du Maurier Quotes

“He stole horses' you'll say to yourself, 'and he didn't care for women; and but for my pride I'd have been with him now.”

Has BeensCarePrideHorse
Book:Daphne du Maurier Omnibus 3: Jamaica Inn; The Flight of the Falcon; The King's General; The Glass Blowers; The Breaking Point & Other Stories; Mary Anne
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“Sometimes it’s a sort of indulgence to think the worst of ourselves. We say, ‘Now I have reached the bottom of the pit, now I can fall no further,’ and it is almost a pleasure to wallow in the darkness. The trouble is, it’s not true. There is no end to the evil in ourselves, just as there is no end to the good. It’s a matter of choice. We struggle to climb, or we struggle to fall. The thing is to discover which way we’re going.”

ThinkingWayI CanEndsSometimesMatterChoicesFallEvilPleasureDarknessStruggleTroubleWorstBottomClimbsPitsIndulgence
Book:The Scapegoat
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“We can see the film stars of yesterday in yesterday’s films, hear the voices of poest and singers on a record, keep the plays of dead dramatists upon our bookshelves, but the actor who holds his audience captive for one brief moment upon a lighted stage vanishes forever when the curtain falls.”

PlayMomentsFilmFallActorsStarsVoiceActingAudienceForeverRecordsStageSingersYesterdayCurtainsCaptivesBookshelvesBrief MomentsFilm Stars
Book:The Rebecca notebook and other memories
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“He had the face of one who walks in his sleep, and for a wild moment the idea came to me that perhaps he was not normal, not altogether sane. There were people who had trances, I had surely heard of them, and they followed strange laws of which we could know nothing, they obeyed the tangled orders of their own sub-conscious minds. Perhaps he was one of them, and here we were within six feet of death.”

PeopleKnowsMindIdeasMomentsFacesLawOrderSleepWalksHeardFeetStrangeNormalSixConsciousSaneTangledTranceConscious MindStrange Laws
Book:Rebecca
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“The peace of Manderley. The quietude and the grace. Whoever lived within its walls, whatever trouble there was and strife, however much uneasiness and pain, no matter what tears were shed, what sorrows borne, the peace of Manderley could not be broken or the loveliness destroyed.”

MatterPainGraceTroubleTearsBrokenWallSorrowNo Matter WhatDestroyedShedStrifeLovelinessUneasiness
Book:Daphne du Maurier Omnibus 4: Rebecca; My Cousin Rachel
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“Why did dogs make one want to cry? There was something so quiet and hopeless about their sympathy. Jasper, knowing something was wrong, as dogs always do. Trunks being packed. Cars being brought to the door. Dogs standing with drooping tails, dejected eyes. Wandering back to their baskets in the hall when the sound of the car dies away.”

WantEyeDiesSoundKnowingDoorsDogCarCryQuietStandingWanderHopelessHallsTailsBasketsTrunksKnowing SomethingDejected
Author:Daphne du Maurier
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“They are not brave, the days when we are twenty-one. They are full of little cowardices, little fears without foundation, and one is so easily bruised, so swiftly wounded, one falls to the first barbed word. To-day, wrapped in the complacent armour of approaching middle age, the infinitesimal pricks of day by day brush one but lightly and are soon forgotten, but then—how a careless word would linger, becoming a fiery stigma, and how a look, a glance over a shoulder, branded themselves as things eternal.”

FirstsLooksLittlesAgeFallMiddleBecomingEternalTwentiesFoundationBraveForgottenShouldersCowardiceWoundedBrushesGlancesMiddle AgesCarelessStigmaTwenty OneFieryComplacentBruisedArmourBrandedCareless Words
Author:Daphne du Maurier
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“Jem was safe from her, and he would ride away with a song on his lips and a laugh at her expense, forgetful of her, and of his brother, and of God; while she dragged through the years, sullen and bitter, the stain of silence marking her, coming in the end to ridicule as a soured spinster who had been kissed once in her life and could not forget it.”

YearsEndsSongForgetSilenceLaughingBrotherSafeLipsBitterExpensesRidiculeForget ItStainsThrough The YearsJemForgetfulSullenSpinsters
Book:JAMAICA INN
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“I wondered how many people there were in the world who suffered, and continued to suffer, because they could not break out from their own web of shyness and reserve, and in their blindness and folly built up a great distorted wall in front of them that hid the truth.”

PeopleWorldLifeSufferingBreakFrontsWallBuiltFollyReservesBlindnessShynessBreak Out
Book:Daphne du Maurier Omnibus 4: Rebecca; My Cousin Rachel
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“here was a silence between them for a moment, and she wondered if all women, when in love, were torn between two impulses, a longing to throw modesty and reserve to the winds and confess everything, and an equal determination to conceal the love forever, to be cool, aloof, utterly detached, to die rather than admit a thing so personal, so intimate.”

IfsTwoMomentsDiesSilenceForeverWindEqualDeterminationLongingImpulseIntimateModestyReservesTornDetachedBeing CoolForever LoveAloof
Author:Daphne du Maurier
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“I could fight with the living but I could not fight the dead. If there was some woman in London that Maxim loved, someone he wrote to, visited, dined with, slept with, I could fight her. We would stand on common ground. I should not be afraid. Anger and jealousy were things that could be conquered. One day the woman would grow old or tired or different, and Maxim would not love her anymore. But Rebecca would never grow old. Rebecca would always be the same. And she and I could not fight. She was to strong for me.”

IfsShouldDifferentFightingStrongGrowsCommonOne DayTiredLondonMaximsCommon GroundRebecca
Author:Daphne du Maurier
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“...as the slow sea sucked at the shore and then withdrew, leaving the strip of seaweed bare and the shingle churned, the sea birds raced and ran upon the beaches. Then that same impulse to flight seized upon them too. Crying, whistling, calling, they skimmed the placid sea and left the shore. Make haste, make speed, hurry and begone; yet where, and to what purpose? The restless urge of autumn, unsatisfying, sad, had put a spell upon them and they must flock, and wheel, and cry; they must spill themselves of motion before winter came.”

PurposeLeftSeaCryCallingBirdLeavingWinterSpeedFlightBeachImpulseRanWheelsUrgesAutumnShoreSpellsRestlessHasteFlocksSpillsWhistlingSeaweedPlacidSea BirdsShingles
Book:THE BRIDGES AT TOKO-RI, THE STORY OF AVIATION, THE SWIMMING POOL, KISS ME AGAIn, STRANGER, RIVETS, ADVENTURES IN TWO WORLDS, THE SILENT WORLD, SHORT STORIES OF DE MAUPASSANT
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