Judith Merkle Riley Quotes & Sayings

Poverty is the curse of ancient but numerous lineages. — Judith Merkle Riley

Are you aware of the penalties reserved for freethinkers? I could send you to the block. Good. — Judith Merkle Riley

Two halves of the same mind, working at full speed, in perfect coordination. — Judith Merkle Riley

Why the Romans, Father?" I asked him one afternoon.
"Because, my child, they teach us how to bear suffering in a world of injustice where all faith is dead," he answered. — Judith Merkle Riley

I could feel something cold stalking my heart. It was fear. They all begin this way, I thought, with pledges of love. — Judith Merkle Riley

After all, he meant well. Foreigners never seem to understand how little attraction an island of damp fogs, cut off from civilization, and a provincial little court has for us Parisians, who inhabit the most cultivated, powerful monarchy in the world. — Judith Merkle Riley

That is God's way. He upsets everything and loves to annoy the vain most of all. — Judith Merkle Riley

If I had the pen of Moliere, I could make him comic. That is the role of art, is it not? To make monsters comic, so we can bear them, and our own cheap griefs into grand tragedy, so that others will weep with us. — Judith Merkle Riley

Oaths, in my opinion, infernal or not, ought to be short. — Judith Merkle Riley

I mistrust mountebanks - especially of the female variety. — Judith Merkle Riley

Oh, good Lord Jesus, I prayed, preserve me from this joking of God. Grief and trouble were all bad enough. But joking? It seemed altogether unfair, to me. — Judith Merkle Riley

DON'T LOOK LIKE a midwife," Brother Gregory interrupted, as he blew on a page to make it dry. His face was averted to conceal his distaste. It is one thing to describe, say, the Virgin with angel attendants, but this woman had no discretion at all. "I'm not one anymore," replied Margaret, looking at him coldly. "That is self-evident; it's not an art practiced by women in respectable circumstances," said Brother Gregory, looking around. "It ought to be the most respected profession in the world - midwives witness how God makes the world new," said Margaret; — Judith Merkle Riley

He didn't want to puff her up. Puffed-up women are one of the original sources of trouble in the world. If anyone knew that, it was he. He counted it as one of his duties to mankind to keep women from puffing themselves up, though it had been a most monumental duty in his own marriage. A job requiring a hero. It was one of those things that God, being male, questioned you about before you were let into heaven, and he was proud to say that he hadn't neglected it. — Judith Merkle Riley

Daughter, your presence is a stay and consolation to me. Begin again in the Tenth Book; tell me, how does Aristotle define true happiness?" "Father, he tells us that true happiness is found in contemplation, whereas the common idea of happiness as pleasant amusements is fostered by the courts of tyrants. — Judith Merkle Riley

No the cat we had to leave. It was not Protestant. But the dog, seeing no future for the Reformed Religion in France, was happy enough to go. — Judith Merkle Riley

I was content to dwell on the new idea that had come to me that all things and states were just varieties of light, and that in every form, light was the emanation and manifestation of God. — Judith Merkle Riley

A cat improves the garden wall in sunshine, and the hearth in foul weather. — Judith Merkle Riley

It is impossible to deny a woman in a feeding mood. It is as if they look right through you, to that small, weak part that has been there since you were a baby and that doesn't know how to defy authority. — Judith Merkle Riley

How funny we are, I thought, the way we dance about each other, each afraid of being hurt by the other. — Judith Merkle Riley

You haven't learned anything yet, have you? Don't you know My hand sustains you?" I began to shiver in the chilly wind, and wrapped my cloak tighter. Then - I just couldn't help it - I said, "You - have a hand?" "Only in a manner of speaking. I thought you'd understand it better that way." "Oh, I'm sorry." "You ought to be. You're very troublesome, for a woman." "For a woman - ? Are You a man, then, after all?" "I am what people expect Me to be. It's all they are capable of comprehending. After all, doesn't it surprise you that I'm speaking in English instead of Latin?" "But I don't know any Latin." "Exactly. — Judith Merkle Riley

If I'm kept here much longer, I think I'll have to have another tantrum. They're certainly more satisfying than I ever suspected. I can see why a person would get in the habit of it. — Judith Merkle Riley

There is nothing wrong with being a woman, and doing ordinary things. Sometimes small deeds can show big ideas. — Judith Merkle Riley

When faced with the illogical, one must expand the sphere of logic to include rules of logic for that which is not logic. This is the only possibility in a world that works according to the rules of rationality. — Judith Merkle Riley

Susanna, what you need is a man to look after you
a proper one, not a drunk or a philanderer
or sure as fate, you'll not be safe on this earth."
"Oh, nonsense, Nan. I had a man, and he didn't look after me at all, and now I'm just beginning to enjoy myself. — Judith Merkle Riley

Tell me, Brother Gregory, in your opinion can a woman think as well as a man?"
"Properly speaking," he said in a learned voice, "a woman cannot think at all, or at least, think as we men know it. But the imitative ability is very greatly developed in women, so that by copying men, some may attain the appearance of thought. — Judith Merkle Riley