Martha Ostenso Quotes

• A false vision was better than none.

  Martha Ostenso

  Vision

  5 Copy quote

• But one had to go back to the beginning of things, always. Trace the thread of life - find the knot - untangle it.

  Martha Ostenso

  Knots, Thread, Threads Of Life

  Martha Ostenso (1929). “The Young May Moon”

  11 Copy quote

• There was nothing so real on the prairie as winter, nothing so memorable.

  Martha Ostenso

  Real, Memorable, Winter

  Martha Ostenso (1927). “The Mad Carews”, New York : Dodd, Mead

  5 Copy quote

• There is too much doing - too little being! When we begin to get strenuous, life begins to grow intolerable.

  Martha Ostenso

  Littles, Too Much, Grows

  Martha Ostenso (1926). “The Dark Dawn”, New York : Dodd, Mead

  4 Copy quote

• I don't see as it matters much how well you mean if it's harm you're doin'.

  Martha Ostenso

  Mean, Matter, Harm

  Martha Ostenso (1927). “The Mad Carews”, New York : Dodd, Mead

  6 Copy quote

• A sickness ... defines margins, crystallizes the shape of things.

  Martha Ostenso

  Shapes, Sickness, Illness

  Martha Ostenso (1938). “The Mandrake Root”

  4 Copy quote

• Time, designing slowly, swiftly; Time, destroying slowly, swiftly; Time holding, possessing the earth in its tender indifference.

  Martha Ostenso

  Time, Design, Earth

  Martha Ostenso (1927). “The Mad Carews”, New York : Dodd, Mead

  4 Copy quote

• a man can break God's laws and be forgiven. That's what they teach us. But when he breaks Nature's laws, there's no forgiveness - and there's no escape. Sooner or later he pays the penalty, or his children pay it - or his children's children. It doesn't matter much. It must be paid.

  Martha Ostenso

  Nature, Children, Men

  Martha Ostenso (1937). “The Stone Field”, New York, Dodd

  4 Copy quote

• You have stirred the soil with your plow, my friend. It will never be the same again.

  Martha Ostenso

  Soil, Farming, My Friends

  Martha Ostenso (1943). “O River, Remember”

  4 Copy quote

• The past ... is a dim avenue down which we may walk and find the diverging paths of terror and beauty and passion.

  Martha Ostenso

  Passion, Past, May

  Martha Ostenso (1932). “Prologue to Love”, New York : Dodd, Mead

  4 Copy quote

• Ah, life, life, how madly, how cruelly it raced along your pulses!

  Martha Ostenso

  Life, Pulse

  Martha Ostenso (1929). “The Young May Moon”

  5 Copy quote

• Religion is passionate, reckless, destructive, idol-smashing. It's a martyr burning at the stake. It's a crown of thorns and a cross.

  Martha Ostenso

  Idols, Religion, Thorns

  4 Copy quote

• There's precious little comes of telling people what they don't want to hear.

  Martha Ostenso

  People, Advice, Want

  Martha Ostenso (1932). “Prologue to Love”, New York : Dodd, Mead

  4 Copy quote

• The snow again. White, white net of beauty, net of dream, trapping the earth, trapping the helpless heart of life.

  Martha Ostenso

  Dream, Heart, Winter

  Martha Ostenso (1926). “The Dark Dawn”, New York : Dodd, Mead

  4 Copy quote

• It's remarkable - most remarkable, the way these people manage, from time to time, a tragedy or a near-tragedy to break the even tenor of their ways,' said Mr. Tingley, in a tone of half-humorous superiority, by which he considered that he distinguished himself, subtly and inoffensively, from 'these people.

  Martha Ostenso

  Humorous, People, Tragedy

  Martha Ostenso (1926). “The Dark Dawn”, New York : Dodd, Mead

  4 Copy quote

• Time passed so much more slowly than space.

  Martha Ostenso

  Time, Space, Time Passes

  4 Copy quote

• The lush green of the fields became a rich gold that swayed sturdily under the wind and fell at last before the hands of the reapers.

  Martha Ostenso

  Autumn, Hands, Wind

  Martha Ostenso (1927). “The Mad Carews”, New York : Dodd, Mead

  8 Copy quote

• Growing old was simply a process of drawing closer to that ultimate independence called death.

  Martha Ostenso

  Death, Drawing, Independence

  Martha Ostenso (1934). “The White Reef”, New York, Dodd

  4 Copy quote

• Here and there on the branch of an oak a congress of leaves still clung, rigid as flakes of bronze.

  Martha Ostenso

  Autumn, Here And There, Branches

  4 Copy quote

• once a man had thrust his hands into the soil and knew the grit of it between his teeth, he felt something rise within him that was not of his day or generation, but had persisted through birth and death from a time beyond recall.

  Martha Ostenso

  Men, Hands, Teeth

  Martha Ostenso (1937). “The Stone Field”, New York, Dodd

  4 Copy quote

• Listen - man is a child of Nature. When he turns against his mother - he's done! He may not find out about it right away, but he will.

  Martha Ostenso

  Mother, Nature, Children

  Martha Ostenso (1937). “The Stone Field”, New York, Dodd

  4 Copy quote

• it was a sly trick of God's to give a man work to do - it kept him from asking questions that God couldn't answer.

  Martha Ostenso

  Work, Men, Asking Questions

  Martha Ostenso (1929). “The Young May Moon”

  7 Copy quote

• By mid-morning a rain as fine as silk spills was weaving over the lake.

  Martha Ostenso

  Morning, Rain, Lakes

  Martha Ostenso (1937). “The Stone Field”, New York, Dodd

  6 Copy quote

• God, what pathetic creatures had inherited the earth, to walk a little while with their eyes upon the stars and turn their gaze too soon upon the ground that held their feet!

  Martha Ostenso

  Stars, Eye, Feet

  4 Copy quote

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