Ellen Glasgow

“The deeper the experience, the less articulate its expression.”

“The desire to be loved is the last illusion. Give it up and you will be free.”

“It is better to be a fool than to be dead.”

“No idea is so antiquated that it was not once modern. No idea is so modern that it will not someday be antiquated.”

“The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race.”

“People with clenched minds usually have fixed habits.”

“Character is a reserved force which acts directly by presence, and without means.”

“It is one of the strange discoveries a man makes that life is tragic from the start, and that conceit is what makes it bearable.”

“The world is what you make it. If you want to make it a better place, you have to start with yourself.”

“There is a certain meddlesome spirit which, in the guise of charity, is the creator of half the mischiefs of the world.”

“The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions.”

“All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward.”

“What happens is not as important as how you react to what happens.”

“To be in love is to be in a perpetual state of anesthesia.”

“Idealism, however impractical, is the only force that can make a real-world difference.”