Nan Fairbrother Quotes

• A garden is one of the few expressions of man's nature that is altogether benign.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Gratitude, Appreciation, Nature

  9 Copy quote

• The hardest of all is learning to be a well of affection, and not a fountain, to show them that we love them, not when we feel like it, but when they do.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Love, Inspirational, Affection

  Nan Fairbrother (1954). “An English Year”

  7 Copy quote

• I have reached the stage now where luxury is not in fine possessions but in carefree possessions, and the greatest luxury of all would be the completely expendable.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Happiness, Luxury, Would Be

  Nan Fairbrother (1965). “The House”

  11 Copy quote

• Most of us are experts at solving other people's problems, but we generally solve them in terms of our own and the advice we give is seldom for other people but for ourselves.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Happiness, Giving, People

  Nan Fairbrother (1965). “The House”

  11 Copy quote

• Enthusiasm is a plant which grows variously in the varying soils of different natures.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Different, Enthusiasm, Soil

  Nan Fairbrother (1965). “The House”

  10 Copy quote

• children once settled and confident can mostly be left, it seems, to manage their difficulties without us. Only what we must do, always and unalterably, is hold their hand firmly in general goodwill, then they themselves seem to deal with their own particular troubles far better than we can.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Children, Hands, Trouble

  9 Copy quote

• If you would be happy all your life, plant a garden.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Garden, Would Be, Plant

  10 Copy quote

• There is a stage with people we love when we are no longer separate from them, but so close in sympathy that we live through them as directly as through ourselves. ... we push back our hair because theirs is in their eyes.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Inspirational, Eye, Hair

  Nan Fairbrother (1954). “An English Year”

  8 Copy quote

• leisure is an attitude of mind, not simply remission of work.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Attitude, Mind, Leisure

  Nan Fairbrother (1965). “The House”

  10 Copy quote

• children are not undeveloped versions of adult people: they are a different race of beings: they are children.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Children, Race, People

  8 Copy quote

• The sorrows we imagine are more profound and inconsolable than real life leaves us time for.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Real, Profound, Imagination

  8 Copy quote

• It is always one of the tragedies of any relationship, even between people sensitive to each other's moods, that the moments of emotion so rarely coincide.

  Nan Fairbrother

  People, Tragedy, Emotion

  Nan Fairbrother (1954). “An English Year”

  9 Copy quote

• happiness makes us older, less romantic, less in need of dreams. Discontent, not happiness, is the food of youth and poetry.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Dream, Needs, Youth

  Nan Fairbrother (1954). “An English Year”

  7 Copy quote

• A collection of plants is not a landscape, any more than a list of choice words is a poem. The merit is in the design, not the material it is expressed in, and the best designs, like the best poems, make ordinary material significant by its arrangement.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Choices, Design, Landscape

  Nan Fairbrother (1974). “The nature of landscape design: as an art form, a craft, a social necessity”, Alfred A. Knopf

  6 Copy quote

• Understanding, above all, is a gift we should never offer uninvited.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Understanding, Should, Offers

  Nan Fairbrother (1954). “An English Year”

  4 Copy quote

• As every real estate agent knows, a poor house in good surroundings will sell for a higher price than a better house in poor surroundings, and in a town they confidently ask 25 percent more rent for a flat with a view of a park that for an identical flat with no view.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Beauty, Real, Views

  7 Copy quote

• Summer weather, like being in love,is a philosopher's stone which turns our ordinary days to gold. But not the whole day ... For it is never the whole day, never all our life which is transformed in any happiness, but only the exquisite moments.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Summer, Being In Love, Love Is

  Nan Fairbrother (1954). “An English Year”

  7 Copy quote

• The sorrows of children are profound and unsuspected.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Children, Profound, Sorrow

  8 Copy quote

• We envy people we love for being always in their own loved company.

  Nan Fairbrother

  People, Envy, Company

  Nan Fairbrother (1954). “An English Year”

  4 Copy quote

• We are perverse creatures and never satisfied.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Evil, Mankind, Satisfied

  8 Copy quote

• when people go away, or when we leave the places we love, or something we treasure goes out of our life - I have always noticed that before it happens - this leaving, this parting - when we think about it beforehand we are overwhelmed with sadness at the loss to come. ... the most unbearable sense of loss, the worst homesickness of all, so I have found, is this loss and sickness we feel beforehand, before we ever leave home.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Home, Sadness, Loss

  7 Copy quote

• the large black slugs ... come out at dusk. Enormous slugs. As big as crocodiles. So huge we need a gun to shoot them. And by the end of the summer, if they go on growing, we shall have to go out in pairs together for protection.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Summer, Gun, Black

  9 Copy quote

• Perhaps the way with any obsession is to ignore it simply. Not to fight it, since it draws strength from any contact with us, whether hostile or friendly.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Fighting, Friendly, Way

  Nan Fairbrother (1954). “An English Year”

  7 Copy quote

• Every search has its own momentum. It is why a search makes such an excellent plot for a film or story.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Plot, Momentum, Stories

  Nan Fairbrother (1965). “The House”

  4 Copy quote

• the urgent crowds out the essential.

  Nan Fairbrother

  Priorities, Essentials, Crowds

  Nan Fairbrother (1965). “The House”

  7 Copy quote

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