Ada Leverson Quotes

• You don’t know a woman until you have had a letter from her.

  Ada Leverson

  Letters, Knows

  'Tenterhooks' (1912) ch. 7

  45 Copy quote

• There is, of course, no joy so great as the cessation of pain; in fact all joy, active or passive, is the cessation of some pain, since it must be the satisfaction of a longing, even perhaps an unconscious longing.

  Ada Leverson

  Pain, Joy, Satisfaction

  Ada Leverson (1962). “The little Ottleys: Love's shadow. Tenterhooks. Love at second sight”

  7 Copy quote

• Absurdly improbable things are quite as liable to happen in real life as in weak literature.

  Ada Leverson

  Real, Literature, Unexpected

  Ada Leverson (1907). “The Twelfth Hour”

  7 Copy quote

• Feminine intuition, a quality perhaps even rarer in women than in men.

  Ada Leverson

  Women, Intuition, Quality

  Ada Leverson (1962). “The little Ottleys: Love's shadow. Tenterhooks. Love at second sight”

  4 Copy quote

• You don't really know a woman until she writes you a letter.

  Ada Leverson

  Writing, Letters, Knows

  8 Copy quote

• When I see a cheerful young man shrieking about how full of life he is, banging on a drum, and blowing on a tin trumpet, and speaking of his good spirits, it depresses me, since naturally it gives the contrary impression. It can't be real. It ought to be but it isn't. If the noisy person meant what he said, he wouldn't say it.

  Ada Leverson

  Depressing, Real, Men

  Ada Leverson (2012). “Love at Second Sight”, p.100, tredition

  7 Copy quote

• Everything comes to the man who won't wait.

  Ada Leverson

  Men, Waiting, He Man

  Ada Leverson (2012). “Tenterhooks”, p.58, tredition

  5 Copy quote

• Looking at the poems of John Gray when I saw the tiniest rivulet of text meandering through the very largest meadow of margin, I suggested to Oscar Wilde that he should go a step further than these minor poets; he should publish a book all margin; full of beautiful, unwritten thoughts.

  Ada Leverson

  Beautiful, Book, Oscars

  4 Copy quote

• Many women I know think the ideal of happiness is to be in love with a great man, or to be the wife of a great public success; to share his triumph! They forget you share the man as well!

  Ada Leverson

  Men, Thinking, Wife

  Ada Leverson (2012). “Tenterhooks”, p.130, tredition

  5 Copy quote

• envy, as a rule, is of success rather than of merit. No one would have objected to his talent deserving recognition - only to his getting it.

  Ada Leverson

  Envy, Merit, Recognition

  Ada Leverson (1951). “The limit”

  4 Copy quote

• Most people would far rather be seen through than not be seen at all.

  Ada Leverson

  People, Attention

  Ada Leverson (2012). “Tenterhooks”, p.219, tredition

  4 Copy quote

• The Futurists?.... Well, of course, they are already past.

  Ada Leverson

  Past, Wells, Futurist

  7 Copy quote

• People were not charmed with Eglantine because she herself was charming, but because she was charmed.

  Ada Leverson

  People, Charming, Charm

  Ada Leverson (2012). “Love at Second Sight”, p.47, tredition

  5 Copy quote

• an optimist is the man who looks after your eyes, and the pessimist the person who looks after your feet.

  Ada Leverson

  Eye, Men, Feet

  Ada Leverson (1951). “The limit”

  5 Copy quote

• The marvellous instinct with which women are usually credited seems too often to desert them on the only occasions when it would be of any real use. One would say it was there for trivialities only, since in a crisis they are usually dense, fatally doing the wrong thing. It is hardly too much to say that most domestic tragedies are caused by the feminine intuition of men and the want of it in women.

  Ada Leverson

  Real, Men, Intuition

  Ada Leverson (1962). “The little Ottleys: Love's shadow. Tenterhooks. Love at second sight”

  4 Copy quote

• Most people now seem to treasure anything they value in proportion to the extent that it's followed about and surrounded by the vulgar public.

  Ada Leverson

  People, Treasure, Proportion

  Ada Leverson (2012). “Tenterhooks”, p.130, tredition

  6 Copy quote

• It's always something to get one's wish, even if the wish is a failure.

  Ada Leverson

  Wish, Ifs

  Ada Leverson (1951). “The limit”

  6 Copy quote

• All really frank people are amusing, and would remain so if they could remember that other people may sometimes want to be frank and amusing too.

  Ada Leverson

  Talking, People, May

  5 Copy quote

• It is all very well to say that children are happier with mud pies and rag dolls than with these elaborate delights. There may be something in this theory, but when their amusements are carried to such a point of luxurious and imaginative perfection it certainly gives them great and even unlimited enjoyment at the time.

  Ada Leverson

  Children, Pie, Giving

  4 Copy quote

• Suspense is torture ... but delightful--or there'd be no gambling in the world.

  Ada Leverson

  Gambling, Suspense, World

  Ada Leverson (1907). “The Twelfth Hour”

  20 Copy quote

• A butler in an English household should, however, be English, and as much like an archbishop as possible.

  Ada Leverson

  England, Should, Butlers

  4 Copy quote

• Fog and hypocrisy - that is to say, shadow, convention, decency - these were the very things that lent to London its poetry and romance.

  Ada Leverson

  Fog, Hypocrisy, Romance

  4 Copy quote

• A morbid propensity that causes great suffering in domestic life is often curiously infectious to the very person for whom it creates most suffering.

  Ada Leverson

  Suffering, Causes, Life Is

  4 Copy quote

• To a woman--I mean, a nice woman--there is no such thing as men. There is a man; and either she is so fond of him that she can talk of nothing else, however unfavourably, or so much in love with him that she never mentions his name.

  Ada Leverson

  Nice, Mean, Men

  Ada Leverson (2012). “Love at Second Sight”, p.97, tredition

  4 Copy quote

• Women are so perverse. Look how they won't wear black when nothing suits them so well!

  Ada Leverson

  Black, Looks, Suits

  Ada Leverson (1907). “The Twelfth Hour”

  4 Copy quote

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