Rachel Field Quotes & Sayings

And scandal has a way of catching up with those who disregard its power. — Rachel Field

But I was so sure of myself. I believed I could manage my own life. Mud might spatter and spoil other skirts, but not mine. Somehow I believed no harm could come to me because I meant no harm to others. I was defiant and proud because I felt too sure of myself.'
"'You are not the first to make that mistake,' he answered gravely. 'We all believe our lives are our own till we find we cannot separate them from other lives.'" -p. 300 — Rachel Field

When I was young they used to say people only threw stones at the tree that was loaded with fruit. — Rachel Field

There's plenty of fire in the coldest flint! — Rachel Field

The sight of a cage is only frightening to the bird that has once been caught. — Rachel Field

I was never one to begrudge people their memories. From a child I would listen when they spoke of the past. — Rachel Field

The more one suffered and lived, the more one had known of joy and grief, the deeper the response must be if an artist were great enough to summon it. — Rachel Field

Isn't it strange some people make
You feel so tired inside,
Your thoughts begin to shrivel up
Like leaves all brown and dried!
But when you're with some other ones,
It's stranger still to find
Your thoughts as thick as fireflies
All shiny in your mind! — Rachel Field

You know the public is more easily swayed by persons than by principles. — Rachel Field

Affections cannot be stolen, madam. They are given freely or not at all. — Rachel Field

I used to think I had ambition ... but now I'm not so sure. It may have been only discontent. They're easily confused. — Rachel Field

Oh, well, it might look like a patterned world, laid out in prim design, but to those living there it could never be so simple. They were as alive as she: that old peasant contriving to outwit the cold; that woman anxiously counting her comical flock lest one goose escape her vigilance; all those who slept, or toiled, or loved under the low-hung roofs or the sharp turrets. Those people out there, if they caught sight of her own face pressed close to the window pane, might be speculating about her. To them she was part of the pattern of the lumbering train with its trail of smoke and little boxlike carriages. Perhaps they envied her, riding at ease to distant Paris. How little they knew of that! How little she herself know what awaited her at the end of the journey! — Rachel Field

Doorbells are like a magic game,
Or the grab-bag at a fair
You never know when you hear one ring
Who may be waiting there. — Rachel Field

A little town is like a lantern. Nothing's hid from sight. — Rachel Field

I've seen public opinion shift like the wind and put out the very fire it lighted. — Rachel Field

Too much good fortune can make you smug and unaware. Happiness should be like an oasis, the greener for the desert that surrounds it. — Rachel Field

It's terrible when the weak are also cruel for then we are defenseless against them. — Rachel Field

No hardy perennial has the enduring quality of hope. Cut it to the roots, stamp it underfoot, let frost and fire work their will, and still some valiant shoot will push, to grow again on such scanty fare as it can find. Only time and the cruel quicklime of fact can destroy that stubborn urgency. — Rachel Field

The difference between ambition and discontent is quite a fine line and sometimes it is hard to tell which is which and which you are feeling! — Rachel Field

One of the pleasantest things about book writing is that sometimes it brings one in touch with old friends. — Rachel Field

There was no reality to pain when it left one, thought while it held one fast all other realities failed. — Rachel Field

His hoofbeats fall like rain, over and over again. — Rachel Field

No matter how hard and faithfully we may try we can never compensate another for some lack in his or her life. — Rachel Field