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Rose Macaulay

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Famous Rose Macaulay Quotes

“One is, after all, very adaptable; one has to be. One finds diversions; these, indeed, confront one at every turn, the world being so full of natural beauties and enchanting artifacts, of adventures and jokes and excitements and romance and remedies for grief. It is simply that a dimension has been taken out of my life, leaving it flat, not rich and rounded and alive any more, but hollow and thin and unreal, like a ghost that roves whispering about its old haunts, looking always for something that is not there.”

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Book:The Towers of Trebizond
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“We may say that all ages are dangerous to all people, in this dangerous life we live. But the thirties are a specially dangerous time for women. They have outlived the shyness and restraints of girlhood, and not attained to the caution and discretion of middle age. They are reckless, and consciously or unconsciously on the lookout for adventure. They see ahead of them the end of youth, and that quickens their pace.”

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Book:Dangerous Ages
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“Turks, like Russians and Israelites, seem to want you to see the things that show you how they have got on since Atatürk, or since the Bolshevik revolution, or since they took over Palestine. But how people have got on is actually only interesting to the country which has got on. What foreign visitors care about are the things that were there before they began to get on. I dare say foreigners in England really only want to see Stonehenge, and Roman walls and villas, and the field under which Silchester lies buried, and Norman castles and churches, and the ruins of medieval abbeys, and don't care a bit about Sheffield and Birmingham, or our model farms and new towns and universities and schools and dams and aerodromes and things.”

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Author:Rose Macaulay
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“You point out that war is only a symptom of the whole horrid business of human behavior, and cannot be isolated. And that, even if we abolish war, we shall not abolish hate and greed. So might it have been argued about slave emancipation, that slavery was but one aspect of human disgustingness, and that to abolish it would not end the barbarity that causes it. But did the abolitionists therefore waste their breath? And do we waste ours now in protesting against war?”

IfsHumansHas BeensWarEndsWholeMightHateCausesWasteBehaviorAspectBreathsSlaverySlaveGreedIsolatedHuman BehaviorSymptomsEmancipationAbolishAbolitionistBarbarityAgainst War
Author:Rose Macaulay
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“Every year, in the deep midwinter, there descends upon this world a terrible fortnight. ... every shop is a choked mass of humanity ... nerves are jangled and frayed, purses emptied to no purposes, all amusements and all occupations suspended in favor of frightful businesses with brown paper, string, letters, cards, stamps, and crammed post offices. This period is doubtless a foretaste of whatever purgatory lies in store for human creatures.”

WorldYearsHumansLyingPurposeHumanityThis WorldPeriodsTerribleCreaturesOfficePaperMassLettersStoresFavorsChristmasCardsPostsShopsBrownStringsNervesOccupationStampsAmusementPursesSuspendedPurgatoryPost OfficeFortnightMidwinter
Author:Rose Macaulay
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“How far does one combine resistance to over-control with social justice, i.e. tolerable living for people in general? We are too selfish to be trusted, if left free, to give away enough to make people comfortable enough to give them a chance. Yet if all this is ordered for us, as to some extent it has to be, it so soon leads to tyranny. It is a very difficult problem. If only human beings had more pity, unselfishness, and justice and didn't need coercion to treat each other decently.”

PeopleIfsNeedsGivingHumansDoeEnoughProblemLeftSocialDifficultJusticeChanceHuman BeingsCompassionComfortableTreatsSocial JusticeSelfishTyrannyResistancePityTrustedCoercionTolerableUnselfishnessDifficult Problems
Author:Rose Macaulay
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“I can think of few things more disastrous than starting a new correspondence with any one. Letters are a burden indeed ... they seem often the last straw that breaks the back ... you should see the piles of those that I must answer that litter and weight my writing table.”

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Book:Last letters to a friend, 1952-1958
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“Decades have a delusive edge to them. They are not, of course, really periods at all, except as any other ten years may be. But we, looking at them, are caught by the different name each bears, and give them different attributes, and tie labels on them, as if they were flowers in a border.”

IfsGivingYearsMayDifferentPastTimeCoursesNamesFlowerBearsPeriodsTenEdgesCaughtDecadesLabelsBordersTiesAttributesDifferent Names
Book:Told by an Idiot
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“All sorts of articles and letters appear in the papers about women. Profound questions are raised concerning them. Should they smoke? Should they work? Vote? Marry? Exist? Are not their skirts too short, or their sleeves? Have they a sense of humor, of honor, of direction? Are spinsters superfluous? But how seldom similar inquiries are propounded about men.”

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Author:Rose Macaulay
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