Cold Comfort Farm Quotes

• I saw something nasty in the woodshed.

  Stella Gibbons

  Saws, Nasty

  Cold Comfort Farm ch. 10 (1932)

  86 Copy quote

  Show source

• There have always been Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm

  Stella Gibbons

  Comfort, Cold, Farms

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  80 Copy quote

  Show source

• She liked Victorian novels. They were the only kind of novel you could read while eating an apple.

  Stella Gibbons

  Apples, Kind, Eating

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  74 Copy quote

  Show source

• The education bestowed on Flora Poste by her parents had been expensive, athletic and prolonged; and when they died within a few weeks of one another during the annual epidemic of the influenza or Spanish Plague which occurred in her twentieth year, she was discovered to possess every art and grace save that of earning her own living.

  Stella Gibbons

  Art, Epidemics, Years

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  72 Copy quote

  Show source

• The life of a journalist is poor, nasty, brutish, and short. So is his style

  Stella Gibbons

  Style, Nasty, Poor

  1932 Cold Comfort Farm, foreword.

  71 Copy quote

  Show source

• He was, she reflected, almost rudely like a tortoise; and she was glad her friend kept none as pets or they might have suspected mockery.

  Stella Gibbons

  Pet, Might, Tortoises

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  68 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nature is all very well in her place, but she must not be allowed to make things untidy.

  Stella Gibbons

  Wells

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  64 Copy quote

  Show source

• Well, when I am fifty-three or so I would like to write a novel as good as Persuasion but with a modern setting, of course. For the next thirty years or so I shall be collecting material for it. If anyone asks me what I work at, I shall say, 'Collecting material'. No one can object to that.

  Stella Gibbons

  Writing, Years, Three

  64 Copy quote

• One of the disadvantages of almost universal education was the fact that all kinds of persons acquired a familiarity with one's favorite writers. It gave one a curious feeling; it was like seeing a drunken stranger wrapped in one's dressing gown.

  Stella Gibbons

  Feelings, Gowns, Facts

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  65 Copy quote

  Show source

• Happiness can never hope to command so much interest as distress.

  Stella Gibbons

  Introspection, Interest, Command

  58 Copy quote

• On the whole, Flora liked it better when they were silent, though it did rather give her the feeling that she was acting in one of the less cheerful German highbrow films.

  Stella Gibbons

  Giving, Feelings, Cheerful

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Curious how Love destroys every vestige of that politeness which the human race, in its years of evolution, has so painfully acquired.

  Stella Gibbons

  Race, Years, Evolution

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Women are all alike - aye fussin' over their fal-lals and bedazin' a man's eyes, when all they really want is man's blood and his heart out of his body and his soul and his pride.

  Stella Gibbons

  Heart, Eye, Pride

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• I do not object to the phenomena, but I do object to the parrot.

  Stella Gibbons

  Parrots, Objects

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Surely she had endured enough for one evening without having to listen to intelligent conversation?

  Stella Gibbons

  Intelligent, Evening, Enough

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Flora sighed. It was curious that persons who lived what the novelists called a rich emotional life always seemed to be a bit slow on the uptake.

  Stella Gibbons

  Emotional, Novelists, Rich

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Well,' said Mrs Smiling, 'it sounds an appalling place, but in a different way from all the others. I mean, it does sound interesting and appalling, while the others just sound appalling.

  Stella Gibbons

  Mean, Interesting, Sound

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• Here was an occasion, she thought, for indulging in that deliberate rudeness which only persons with habitually good manners have the right to commit.

  Stella Gibbons

  Rudeness, Manners, Commit

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• That would be delightful,' agreed Flora, thinking how nasty and boring it would be.

  Stella Gibbons

  Thinking, Would Be, Nasty

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• You have the most revolting Florence Nightingale complex,' said Mrs. Smiling. It is not that at all, and well you know it. On the whole, I dislike my fellow beings; I find them so difficult to understand. But I have a tidy mind and untidy lives irritate me. Also, they are uncivilized.

  Stella Gibbons

  Florence Nightingale, Mind, Said

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• Like all really strong-minded women, on whom everybody flops, she adored being bossed about. It was so restful.

  Stella Gibbons

  Strong, Strong Minded, Restful

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• A straight nose is a great help if one wishes to look serious'.

  Stella Gibbons

  Wish, Looks, Noses

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are some things (like first love and one’s first reviews) at which a woman in her middle years does not care to look too closely.

  Stella Gibbons

  First Love, Years, Doe

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• By god, DH Lawrence was right when he said there must be a dumb, dark, dull, bitter belly-tension between a man and a woman, and how else could this be achieved save in the long monotony of marriage?

  Stella Gibbons

  Dark, Men, Long

  'Cold Comfort Farm' (1932) ch. 20

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Dawn crept over the Downs like a sinister white animal, followed by the snarling cries of a wind eating its way between the black boughs of the thorns. The wind was the furious voice of this sluggish animal light that was baring the dormers and mullions and scullions of Cold Comfort Farm.

  Stella Gibbons

  Animal, Wind, Voice

  Stella Gibbons (1977). “Cold comfort farm”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

  7 Copy quote

  Show source