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811f294
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It is an anxious, sometimes a dangerous thing to be a doll. Dolls cannot choose; they can only be chosen; they cannot 'do'; they can only be done by.
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life
doll
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Rumer Godden |
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69e2d32
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In good company your thoughts run, in solitude your thought is still; it goes deeper and makes for itself a deeper groove, delves. Delve meansa 'dig with a spade'; it means hard work. In talk your mind can be stretched, widened, exhilarated to heights but it cannot be deepened; you have to deepen it yourself. It needs sturdiness. You will be lonely, you will be depressed; you must expect it; if you were training your body it would ache and..
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solitude
lonliness
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Rumer Godden |
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d714416
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One of the good things about a Catholic church is that it isn't respectable," she had told Richard. "You can find anyone in it, from duchesses to whores, from tramps to kings."
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catholicism
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Rumer Godden |
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918d274
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I wish I knew when I was going to die,' ninety-six-year-old Dame Frances Anne often said, 'I wish I knew.' 'Why, Dame?' 'Then I should know what to read next.
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Rumer Godden |
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7521a1d
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He had always disliked what he could easily have; he had a passion for the untouched.
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Rumer Godden |
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3b50d40
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On and off, all that hot French August, we made ourselves ill from eating the greengages. Joss and I felt guilty; we were still at the age when we thought being greedy was a childish fault and this gave our guilt a tinge of hopelessness because, up to then, we had believed that as we grew older our faults would disappear, and none of them did.
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Rumer Godden |
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b31e448
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When one came to know them it was surprising how childish grown people could be.
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childishness
adults
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Rumer Godden |
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7e712b7
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Sometimes,' she said, remembering that morning, 'I write poems that are taller than I am
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Rumer Godden |
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2590aa1
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You have to be very strong to live close to God or a mountain, or you'll turn a little mad.
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Rumer Godden |
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10f84b0
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Why do religions have edges?" asked Teresa.... "God is here," said the printed text on the wall. "Yes," said Sophie. "But," she asked, "isn't He everywhere? Then why do they make Him little?" And she thought of those edges, pressing against each other, hurting, jarring, offending, barring one human being from another, shutting away their understanding and their souls. Yet if you have no edges, thought Sophie, how lonely, how drifting, you..
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religion
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Rumer Godden |
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8f2eb93
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Is it easier to be than to do?
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Rumer Godden |
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88bc965
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I like the way everything is clear and concise, you'll always be forgiven but you must know the rules
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way-of-life
forgiveness
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Rumer Godden |
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63447d7
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So many grown-up people seem to be nothing very much.
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Rumer Godden |
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65cd5c6
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I know now it is children who accept life; grown people cover it up and pretend it is different with drinks.
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drinking
life
children
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Rumer Godden |
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2ad1413
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Towards four o'clock the dew fell, and she smelled a gust of sweetness from the roses and a paleness showed in the sky to the East. It was cold; the wetness was cold on her hands and she felt her skirt dragging around her ankles... the light spread, there were long lines of cloud in the sky and presently above them the outline of the snow peaks appeared, cold and hard as if they were made of iron; they turned from black to grey to white whi..
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himalayas
mountains
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Rumer Godden |
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d1ba1e3
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Sometimes it seemed to him that the house had a bad wild life of its own; the impression of its evil lingered, in its name, in its atmosphere...
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Rumer Godden |
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5ffeb15
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and as she stood on the Ashford platform waiting for the small train to come in, she seemed already separated from the people around her. Tomorrow I shall not be among you anymore; not of you but mysteriously still with you, thought Philippa. As Lady Abbess of Brede had said, "People think we renounce the world. We don't. We renounce its ways but we are still very much in it and it is very much in us."
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this-house-of-breder
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Rumer Godden |
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a41740c
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Dolls cannot choose; they can only be chosen; they cannot 'do'; they can only be done by; children who do not understand this often do wrong things, and then the dolls are hurt and abused and lost; and when this happens dolls cannot speak, nor do anything except be hurt and abused and lost. If you have any dolls, you should remember that.
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Rumer Godden |
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dce7c3f
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She made a creche outside the Inn. The natives thought it was wonderful, and Sister Honey was gratified by their numbers. Why have the devils with wings come to mock at the poor baby?' asked the children, pointing to the angels. The baby is the Number One Lord Jesus Christ,' Ayah told them. But he hasn't any clothes on! Aren't they going to give Him anything? Not a little red robe? Not a bit of melted butter?'
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potato
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Rumer Godden |
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a08a533
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remember that people need only be told as much of the truth as they are entitled to know,
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Rumer Godden |
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cdc3f9e
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Harriet was silent, thinking, and then she said, "It is too hard to be a person. You don't only have to go on and on. You have to be--" she looked for the word she needed and could not find it. Then, "You have to be tall as well," said Harriet."
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Rumer Godden |
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f02164f
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You are born, you are a he or a she, and you live until you die... Willy-nilly.
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Rumer Godden |
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e6f6534
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Harriet told her, 'Captain John was brave. He stayed there in the battle until his leg was shot off.' Victoria's brown eyes rested thoughtfully on Captain John. "Why didn't he stay until the other leg was shot off?' she asked. But he still seemed to like Victoria best."
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Rumer Godden |
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be47b91
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Funny,' said Harriet to herself. 'The world goes on turning, and it has all these troubles in it.
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Rumer Godden |
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af343d1
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It is strange and cold. I can feel it through the box" said Miss Flower and she cried, "No one will understand us or know what we want. Oh no one will understand us again!" But Miss Happiness was more hopeful and more brave. "I think they will,"she said. "How will they?" "Because there will be some little girl who is clever and kind." "Will there be?" said Miss Flower longingly. "Yes." "Why will there be?" "Because there always has been," s..
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loneliness
homesickness
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Rumer Godden |
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e3bb800
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And you needn't worry about being useful,' said Dame Ursula. 'When you have become God's in the measure He wants, He, Himself, will know how to bestow you on others.' She was quoting St Basil. Then her face grew wistful, '"Unless He prefer, for thy greater advantage, to keep thee all to himself." That does happen to a few people. Yet, paradoxically, they have the greatest influence."
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Rumer Godden |
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fb8c339
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Now you gird yourself and take yourself where you want to go ... but one day another will gird you and take you where you do not want to go.
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Rumer Godden |
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33353b9
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Perhaps it was the pulling up of her stakes, or claims, to her private loves, renouncing them, that had made room for these people in a kind of universal love, without any claims.
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Rumer Godden |
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d26e5cd
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My nation, as all nations, is becoming a land without peace, without thought, without mind, Madam Abbess. We are suffocating our spirits in commercial and material things. This is not envy," said Mr. Konishi earnestly. "I am a rich man, with much business, so I have succeeded in all these things, but I know that they are empty."
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fiction
monasticism
historical-fiction
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Rumer Godden |
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57a6c06
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The human heart Is unknowable. But in my birthplace The flowers still smell The same as always.
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fiction
monasticism
historical-fiction
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Rumer Godden |
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c9447d9
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To wake for the first time in a new place can be like another birth.
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Rumer Godden |
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86d1de7
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Eliot always said, 'I'm sorry. I had to do that.' If you are all right really, really all right, you don't do things that are sorry.
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Rumer Godden |
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8d410f3
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I don't expect you to understand me any more than I can understand you; but I respect you and that's the difference between us.
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understanding
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Rumer Godden |
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aac2844
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I think there are only two ways to live in this place,' said Sister Philippa, 'you must either live like Mr Dean or like the Sunnyasi; either ignore it completely or give yourself up to it.
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Rumer Godden |
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029a76f
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The greengages had a pale blue bloom, especially in the shade, but in the sun the flesh showed amber through the clear green skin; if it were cracked the juice was doubly warm and sweet.
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Rumer Godden |
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82abb5b
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None of us should marry, unless we love a man so much we would go through hell for him, which we shall probably have to do.
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Rumer Godden |
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8be51e8
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Not what thou art, nor what thou hast been, beholdeth God with His merciful eyes, but what thou wouldst be.
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Rumer Godden |