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Quote by Barbara Holland

“Dogwoods are great optimists. Daffodils wait and see, crouching firmly underground just in case spring doesn't come this year, but dogwoods have faith.”

Quote by Barbara Holland

Book:Bingo Night at the Fire Hall: The Case for Cows, Orchards, Bake Sales, & Fairs

Work

Bingo Night at the Fire Hall: The Case for Cows, Orchards, Bake Sales, & Fairs

This book explores the charm and significance of small-town life through a series of essays that focus on community gatherings, local agriculture, and the simple pleasures of rural existence. more

Author

Barbara Holland

Barbara Holland (April 5, 1933 - September 7, 2010) was a British author known for her unique literary style and profound insights into social issues. more

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“Sometimes, with luck, we find the kind of true friend, male or female, that appears only two or three times in a lucky lifetime, one that will winter us and summer us, grieve, rejoice, and travel with us.”

Kind Two Sometimes Three Friendship Lucky Summer Female Luck Lifetime Males Winter Grieving Rejoice Three Times True Friend

Book:One's Company: Reflections on Living Alone

Source: One's Company: Reflections on Living Alone

“One's own flowers and some of one's own vegetables make acceptable, free, self-congratulatory gifts when visiting friends, though giving zucchini - or leaving it on the doorstep, ringing the bell, and running - is a social faux pas.”

Giving Self Running Social Flower Leaving Vegetables Acceptable Bells Gardening Visiting Doorstep Faux Faux Pas Zucchini

Author:Barbara Holland

“The trouble with American History is that you don't remember it, and why should you? Nobody does.”

Should Doe Remember History Trouble American History

Author:Barbara Holland

“We're a shifty, sliding population. ... What we refer to as 'home' may be a place we haven't seen in years; a place where there's no one left who knows our name.”

Knows Years May Home Names Left Havens Population

Author:Barbara Holland

“Hospitality, or flinging wide the door to friends and wayfarers alike, was once important, back in a world without motels or safety nets, where a friend might find his castle burnt down or a wayfarer find bandits on his trail.”

World Important Might Doors Safety Wide Trails Hospitality Castles Safety Net Bandits Motels

Book:Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories

Source: Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories

“Visiting is a pleasure; being visited is usually a mixed or ambivalent joy. ... The visitor can always go home; the visitee is already home, trapped like a rat in a drainpipe.”

Home Joy Pleasure Trapped Rats Hospitality Visiting Visitors Sociability Ambivalent

Author:Barbara Holland

“In civilized places idleness, once the prerequisite for abstract thought, poetry, religion, philosophy, and falling in love, has become a character flaw. In America we've managed to stamp it out almost completely, and few people under forty can remember a single moment of it, even in earliest childhood. The phrase 'spare time' has vanished from the land.”

Source: Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories

“A good-looking piece of scenery anywhere delights the eye and elevates the spirits. Some of us, crude creatures that we are, are merely excited; finer souls draw ethical and spiritual nutrients from the sight.”

Soul Eye Spiritual Spirit Pieces Creatures Draws Sight Delight Excited Ethical Looking Good Crude Scenery Nutrients

Author:Barbara Holland

“moral indignation is a pleasure, often the only pleasure, in many lives. It's also one of the few pleasures people feel obliged to force on other people.”

People Feels Force Pleasure Moral Morality Obliged Indignation Moral Indignation

Author:Barbara Holland

“Are you seeing a psychiatrist?' as a conversation opener would nowadays earn you a punch in the nose, but for fifty years it was a compliment. It meant, 'One can plainly see you are sensitive, intense, and interesting, and therefore neurotic.' Only the dullest of clods trudged around without a neurosis.”

Years Interesting Seeing Conversation Intense Noses Sensitive Fifty Compliment Psychiatry Neurotic Psychiatrist Neurosis

Book:Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories

Source: Wasn't the Grass Greener?: A Curmudgeon's Fond Memories