“One person's weed is another person's wildflower.”
―
Susan Wittig Albert,
An Unthymely Death and Other Garden Mysteries
“The worst thing about talk ... is that there's no way to lay it to rest. Every fresh breeze brings a new speculation.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Hill Top Farm
“Does that mean you're prepared to deal with whatever turns up? People aren't sometimes. When they learn the real truth, they're all of a sudden content to live with a lie.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, Wormwood
“But as it turned out, the two had a great deal in common, for both Bailey and Thackeray (named for the famous novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, author of Vanity Fair) were devoted bibliophiles who believed that "a book a day kept the world at bay," as Thackeray was fond of saying. Bailey was the offspring of a generation of badgers who insisted that "Reader" was the most rewarding vocation to which a virtuous badger might be called and who gauged their week's anticipated pleasure by the height of their to-be-read pile. (Perhaps you know people like this. I do.)” ― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Oat Cake Crag
“There is nothing like a grocery list to remind us how human we are.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, Nightshade
“After a few months, I was no longer wildly romantic about him. But he gave me a warm place to park my heart while I went about my work.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“Never ask, never get," the dog replied. "Never try, never taste. Never taste, never enjoy.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Hawthorn House
“Maude regards the ones who don't make it as her own personal failures. "I guess I didn't put enough emphasis on 'until death do you part,'" she says sourly, whenever she hears about the latest divorce. "Sad to say, but some are in it just for the good times. Married folks, they gotta be like that cat's claw acacia I've got growin' in my yard. Gotta grab hard and hold on tight when the going gets rough. Only way to get through the bad times. Grab hard, hold on, and ride. No matter what.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, Cat's Claw
“It is only in fiction that the protagonist moves in a single minded, one point focus, screening out everything that isn't related to the plot. Real people have to deal with the Myrtles of this world, who have sciatica and cold sores and want to tell you about them” ― Susan Wittig Albert, Love Lies Bleeding
“every American is governed only by the principle of personal responsibility and that his or her most important freedom is the absolute freedom to flourish or fail.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“Do any of us ever outgrow those old childhood hurts, or do they gnaw and fester in our spirits the whole length of our lives?” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“And Miss Potter? Well, having believed in fairies when she was a child and continuing to believe in the creative power of the imagination, she was not at all bothered by the possibility that she and the children might see something they didn't understand.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood
“generosity as a means of controlling someone is no gift at all. It’s a curse.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“Farmers could do better if the government didn’t meddle and the free market was allowed to take its course. And we could all grow at least some of our food, if we invested a bit of work.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“So the badger poked up the fire, poured himself another cup of tea, and went back to the History to read the curious story of the Fern Vale dwelves, a story (he suspected) that was mostly unknown to the Big Folk. Of course, that sort of thing wasn't at all unusual, for although the human residents of the Land between the Lakes thought they knew everything about their surroundings, and although scholarly books related the history, inventoried the animals and plants, and catalogued the folktales, people were aware of only a fraction of what went on around them. One was not criticizing when one said this; one was simply stating the fact. Humans, by and large, were ignorant of the mysteries of life and land.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood
“Grown up at last and required to live all day long in the real world, it now seemed to Beatrix that imaginary fairies were of a great deal more use than real ones. And I think we must agree with her on that score. It is undeniably true that the imagination is far more powerful than knowledge, and that it is much more important to believe in something than to know it! There is, after all, a limit to the things we can know (even if we are fortunate enough to be geniuses), but no limit whatsoever to the things we might imagine. And if we cannot imagine, we will never know what we have yet to learn, for imagination shows us what is possible before knowledge leads us to what is true. For Beatrix, dreaming, imagining, creating, improvising, and fancying redeemed the stern and sometimes frightening world in which she lived, and allowed her to transform it.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood
“Stories are never a waste of time,” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“if we are aiming to be genuinely self-reliant, we must learn to embrace uncertainty and anxiety. If we fail, there will be nothing to break our fall—nothing but whatever cushion we have managed to create for ourselves.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“I’m sure of one thing,” she said earnestly. “It hurts to—to let go of anything beautiful. But something will come to take its place, something different, of course, but better. The future’s always better than we can possibly think it will be . . . We ought to live confidently. Because whatever’s ahead, it’s going to be better than we’ve had.” Rose Wilder Lane Diverging Roads” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“The worst thing about talk ... is that there's no way to lay it to rest. Every fresh breeze brings a new speculation.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Hill Top Farm
“Does that mean you're prepared to deal with whatever turns up? People aren't sometimes. When they learn the real truth, they're all of a sudden content to live with a lie.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, Wormwood
“But as it turned out, the two had a great deal in common, for both Bailey and Thackeray (named for the famous novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, author of Vanity Fair) were devoted bibliophiles who believed that "a book a day kept the world at bay," as Thackeray was fond of saying. Bailey was the offspring of a generation of badgers who insisted that "Reader" was the most rewarding vocation to which a virtuous badger might be called and who gauged their week's anticipated pleasure by the height of their to-be-read pile. (Perhaps you know people like this. I do.)” ― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Oat Cake Crag
“There is nothing like a grocery list to remind us how human we are.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, Nightshade
“After a few months, I was no longer wildly romantic about him. But he gave me a warm place to park my heart while I went about my work.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“Never ask, never get," the dog replied. "Never try, never taste. Never taste, never enjoy.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Hawthorn House
“Maude regards the ones who don't make it as her own personal failures. "I guess I didn't put enough emphasis on 'until death do you part,'" she says sourly, whenever she hears about the latest divorce. "Sad to say, but some are in it just for the good times. Married folks, they gotta be like that cat's claw acacia I've got growin' in my yard. Gotta grab hard and hold on tight when the going gets rough. Only way to get through the bad times. Grab hard, hold on, and ride. No matter what.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, Cat's Claw
“It is only in fiction that the protagonist moves in a single minded, one point focus, screening out everything that isn't related to the plot. Real people have to deal with the Myrtles of this world, who have sciatica and cold sores and want to tell you about them” ― Susan Wittig Albert, Love Lies Bleeding
“every American is governed only by the principle of personal responsibility and that his or her most important freedom is the absolute freedom to flourish or fail.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“Do any of us ever outgrow those old childhood hurts, or do they gnaw and fester in our spirits the whole length of our lives?” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“And Miss Potter? Well, having believed in fairies when she was a child and continuing to believe in the creative power of the imagination, she was not at all bothered by the possibility that she and the children might see something they didn't understand.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood
“generosity as a means of controlling someone is no gift at all. It’s a curse.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“Farmers could do better if the government didn’t meddle and the free market was allowed to take its course. And we could all grow at least some of our food, if we invested a bit of work.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“So the badger poked up the fire, poured himself another cup of tea, and went back to the History to read the curious story of the Fern Vale dwelves, a story (he suspected) that was mostly unknown to the Big Folk. Of course, that sort of thing wasn't at all unusual, for although the human residents of the Land between the Lakes thought they knew everything about their surroundings, and although scholarly books related the history, inventoried the animals and plants, and catalogued the folktales, people were aware of only a fraction of what went on around them. One was not criticizing when one said this; one was simply stating the fact. Humans, by and large, were ignorant of the mysteries of life and land.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood
“Grown up at last and required to live all day long in the real world, it now seemed to Beatrix that imaginary fairies were of a great deal more use than real ones. And I think we must agree with her on that score. It is undeniably true that the imagination is far more powerful than knowledge, and that it is much more important to believe in something than to know it! There is, after all, a limit to the things we can know (even if we are fortunate enough to be geniuses), but no limit whatsoever to the things we might imagine. And if we cannot imagine, we will never know what we have yet to learn, for imagination shows us what is possible before knowledge leads us to what is true. For Beatrix, dreaming, imagining, creating, improvising, and fancying redeemed the stern and sometimes frightening world in which she lived, and allowed her to transform it.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood
“Stories are never a waste of time,” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“if we are aiming to be genuinely self-reliant, we must learn to embrace uncertainty and anxiety. If we fail, there will be nothing to break our fall—nothing but whatever cushion we have managed to create for ourselves.” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
“I’m sure of one thing,” she said earnestly. “It hurts to—to let go of anything beautiful. But something will come to take its place, something different, of course, but better. The future’s always better than we can possibly think it will be . . . We ought to live confidently. Because whatever’s ahead, it’s going to be better than we’ve had.” Rose Wilder Lane Diverging Roads” ― Susan Wittig Albert, A Wilder Rose
