Atherton Quotes & Sayings

A man is more than one being in his life. If the last persists, why not the first? If there be a hereafter for his age, why not for his youth? — Gertrude Atherton

France is the genius among nations. — Gertrude Atherton

The very commonplaces of life are components of its eternal mystery. — Gertrude Atherton

In times of panic man seems to exchange his soul for a tail. — Gertrude Atherton

Here is a simple recipe to begin with. Get up every morning with the set intention of writing and go to your desk and sit there for three hours, whether you accomplish anything or not. Before long you will find that you are writing madly, not waiting for inspiration. — Gertrude Atherton

I am so glad you decided on the cream silk for the evening, Miss Wyndham," she said.
"Thank you, Lady Atherton." It was an absolutely beautiful gown, a pearly cream that glowed whenever light hit it.
"Such a talented modiste, Mrs. Valant. She hides your figure remarkably well," she added, making me wish to smack her with my overly beaded reticule. — Tarun Shanker

There is no greater fraud or bore than the writer who has acquired the art of saying nothing brilliantly. — Gertrude Atherton

If you can't get the very best in this world, take nothing. — Gertrude Atherton

There is only one thing we do know and that is that we do not know anything. — Gertrude Atherton

Books are too heterogeneous an interest to furnish a vital one in life, a reason for being alive. — Gertrude Atherton

The irony of life is not that you cannot forget but that you can. — Gertrude Atherton

The archives recall not one single incriminating incident, not one drunken escapade, not one reported affair, not one spat with a team-mate or reporter - As Matthew Parris wondered of Barack Obama in these pages recently, is he human? — Michael Atherton

As the late earl said, 'The early bird catches birds of a like feather,'" she said.
I nodded, not even trying to understand how that would work. At the very least, the combination of proverbs made it somewhat original. — Tarun Shanker

No country can reach a high stage of civilization without a leisure class ... — Gertrude Atherton

Helplessness in the face of a child's suffering is the curse of parenthood. — Nancy Atherton

When I am alone in the forest I always say my prayers; and that occasional solitary communion with God is surely the only true religion for intelligent beings. — Gertrude Atherton

It took me some time to learn that although every one secretly cherishes the ambition to be 'put in a book,' no one is ever satisfied with anything save incense, butter, and honey, unrelieved by salt or spice. — Gertrude Atherton

Did any great genius ever enter the world in the wake of commonplace pre-natal conditions? Was a maker of history ever born amidst the pleasant harmonies of a satisfied domesticity? Of a mother who was less than remarkable, although she may have escaped being great? Did a woman with no wildness in her blood ever inform a brain with electric fire? The students of history know that while many mothers of great men have been virtuous, none have been commonplace, and few have been happy. — Gertrude Atherton

The thing about darts is that you've got to shout. It's not like cricket where you can talk to Michael Atherton and ask him to analyse the bloody nuances. Darts does not have nuances. You've got to hurl yourself at it. — Sid Waddell

Men are not amusing during the shooting season; but, after all, my dear, men were not especially designed to amuse women. — Gertrude Atherton

Orthodoxy is a fixed habit of mind. The average man and woman hug their orthodoxies and spit their venom on those that outrage them. — Gertrude Atherton

To put a tempting face aside when duty demands every faculty is a lesson which takes most men longest to learn. — Gertrude Atherton

The minority of one generation is usually the majority of the next. — Gertrude Atherton

Beware, Charlotte Atherton," Stone murmured as she disappeared around the corner of the barn. "I'm coming for you." A smile of anticipation stretched across his face. "And I always retrieve what I set out after. — Karen Witemeyer

Plot and melodrama were in every life; in some so briefly as hardly to be recognized, in others-in that of certain men and women in the public eye, for instance-they were almost in the nature of a continuous performance. — Gertrude Atherton

I was supposed to watch you, yeah. They thought it was weird that Atherton would send his own kid to Hecate, so we wanted to keep an eye on you. No pun intended. (Archer) — Rachel Hawkins

They were tales of commonplace courage and optimism, for I knew from my own experience that everyday virtues endure best, and that quiet courage is worth more than the grandest derring-do. — Nancy Atherton

One of the early reasons for Atherton's devotion to Slider had been that Slider had never, from the first meeting, looked at him askance. Slider had his countryman father's view that God had made all creatures different for His own purposes. A horse was not a cat and a cat was not a dog, and only a fool would want them to be. — Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Indeed, as my dear husband used to say, 'the apparel oft proclaims the man,'" Lady Atherton said.
Ah yes, wise words from the late Earl of Atherton, William Shakespeare. — Tarun Shanker

Ray Jennings was to orthodoxy what King Herod was to child-minding. — Michael Atherton

It is a pretty trick of authors to make nature ever in sympathy with man, but as a matter of fact she seldom is. — Gertrude Atherton

A long while ago an eager group of reformers wrote to me asking if I could suggest anything that would improve the morals of the American people. I replied that the trouble with the American people in general was not lack of morals but lack of brains ... — Gertrude Atherton

Whether you fail or set the world on fire cannot make so very much difference if only you have the opportunity to try for it, to work for it, to think of nothing else! — Gertrude Atherton

If there's a spirit world why don't the ghosts of dead artists get together and inhibit bad playwrights from tormenting first-nighters? — Gertrude Atherton

in Atherton. If he had, she — Nicolle Wallace

It is easy to be compassionate with other people's money — John Atherton

We never care to know new people unless we are sure we shall like them. — Gertrude Atherton

The French are a race of individuals. There is no type. — Gertrude Atherton

Women love the lie that saves their pride, but never an unflattering truth. — Gertrude Atherton

Nursing is not only a natural vocation for a woman, but an occupation which increases her matrimonial chances about eighty per cent. — Gertrude Atherton

Oh, what is young love! The urge of the race. A blaze that ends in babies or ashes. — Gertrude Atherton

I want books written out of a brain and heart and soul crowded and vital with Life, spelled with a big L. I want poetry bursting with passion. I don't care a hang for the 'verbal felicities.' They'll do for the fringe, but I want the garment to warm me first. — Gertrude Atherton

Fairy tales, as Nell had said, are always complicated. — Nancy Atherton

An English wood is like a good many other things in life
very promising at a distance, but a hollow mockery when you get within. You see daylight on both sides, and the sun freckles the very bracken. Our woods need the night to make them seem what they ought to be
what they once were, before our ancestors' descendants demanded so much more money, in these so much more various days. ("The Striding Place") — Gertrude Atherton

An older dom snorted. "Atherton uses the word escort loosely. The last time someone messed with a trainee, he threw the guy across the bar. Strolled over, waited for the idiot to stand up, punched his lights out, and dragged him by his jacket collar out of the place. Escorted him, my ass. Didn't even wrinkle that fancy suit." He took a sip of his beer and added, "Atherton is invariably polite, but nobody in their right mind fucks with his trainees. — Cherise Sinclair

The world, and the great and free United States in particular, is full of narrow-minded, ignorant, moronic, bigoted, cowardly, self-righteous, anemic, pig-headed, stupid, puritanical, hypocritical, prejudiced, fanatical, cocoa-blooded atavists, who soothe their inferiority complex by barking their hatred of anything new. — Gertrude Atherton

Genius must ever be imperfect. Life is not long enough nor slow enough for both brain and character to grow side by side to superhuman proportions. — Gertrude Atherton

[Alexander] Hamilton estimated portrait painters as thieves of time. — Gertrude Atherton

Every leader of a great revolution is a fanatic and a Jesuit. — Gertrude Atherton

I am a Californian, and we have twice the individuality and originality of any people in the United States. We always get quite huffy when we are spoken of as merely Americans. — Gertrude Atherton

If you have to be the antagonist, you often have a lot more creative powers. You have a lot more color to you. — William Atherton

Power, after it has ceased from troubling, is the dominant passion in human nature. — Gertrude Atherton

Our impulses are our birthright. To alter personality would be unjust, almost criminal, for the impulses that make a fool or worse of us in certain circumstances may be necessary for our happiness. — Gertrude Atherton

No loose fish enters our quiet bay. — Gertrude Atherton

The Handsome Prince Handbook is mute on the subject of chronic workaholism - Prince Charming, apparently, knew how to delegate - and I didn't know where else to turn for help. What do you do when life begins to go wrong and you've used up all three wishes? — Nancy Atherton

The only positive benefit of the injury to Flintoff may be the end of his captaincy ambitions — Michael Atherton

The curse of human nature is imagination. When a long anticipated moment comes, we always find it pitched a note too low, for the wings of imagination are crushed into its withering sides under the crowding hordes of petty realities. — Gertrude Atherton

Clockwise is sunwise - as opposed to 'widdershins', which witches use. — J.S. Atherton

Her age was that indeterminate mixture of everlasting youth and anticipated wisdom which is the glory and the curse of genius. — Gertrude Atherton

Better extirpate the whole breed, root and branch. And this, unless the German people come to their senses, is what we propose to do. — Gertrude Atherton

It took me years to learn that character is fate and that no one can be made over. — Gertrude Atherton

Nowhere can it rain harder and with a more tiresome persistence than in California during the brief season when it rains at all. — Gertrude Atherton

The human mind has an infinite capacity for self-deception. — Gertrude Atherton

The grief of childhood is terrible while it lasts, it is so abandoned and so all-possessing. — Gertrude Atherton

California has all the beauties of youth as well as its idiocies and vices ... — Gertrude Atherton

William Atherton has a very different acting style to Bonnie Bedelia; she has a very different style than Bruce Willis. — James Gray

On deck, he encountered another young man, Thomas Sumner, of Atherton, England, who also had a camera. (Sumner bore no relation to Cunard's New York manager, Charles Sumner.) Both hoped to take photographs of the harbor. The day was cool and gray - "rather dull," as Sumner put it - and this caused the two to wonder what exposures to use. They fell to talking about photography. — Erik Larson

Fiction is not only the historian of life but its apologist. — Gertrude Atherton

The world changed somewhat in form during its progress, but never in substance. — Gertrude Atherton

The only real rival of love is Art, for that in itself is a deep personal passion, its function an act of creation, fed by some mysterious perversion of sex, and demanding all the imagination's activities. — Gertrude Atherton

Jack made a pass at me, too. He thought my riding crop was alluring until I smacked him across the face with it."
"Good Grief," I said. "Is any woman safe from him?
"If I were Horace Malvern," said Emma, "I'd hide the cows. — Nancy Atherton

There is nothing so carking as the pangs of unsatisfied curiosity. — Gertrude Atherton

Authors are far closer to the truths enfolded in mystery than ordinary people, because of that very audacity of imagination which irritates their plodding critics. As only those who dare to make mistakes succeed greatly, only those who shake free the wings of their imagination brush, once in a way, the secrets of the great pale world. If such writers go wrong, it is not for the mere brains to tell them so — Gertrude Atherton

If this valley is indeed cursed," Atherton continued, "there's the source. The Muslims named this set of ruins Mao Balegh, which means Cursed City. — James Rollins

Concentration is sometimes mistaken for grumpiness. — Michael Atherton

A little superstition is a good thing to keep in one's bag of precautions. — Gertrude Atherton

You can call me, Tyler, Miss Dandridge." "That would hardly be appropriate, Mr. Atherton. I do see, however, you are a soldier." "Yes, ma'am. A lieutenant in the Texas Third Cavalry." Tyler's gaze never left Hannah's. William felt a strange sense of jealousy wash over him when Hannah offered Tyler a smile. "Then perhaps you would allow me to call you . . . Lieutenant." Tyler laughed and gave a sweeping bow. "You can call me anything, ma'am, so long as it ain't late to the dinner table." His men laughed, as well, and even Hannah appeared amused. — Tracie Peterson

The amusements of life, he argued, should be accepted with the same philosophy as its ills. ("The Striding Place") — Gertrude Atherton

I see no present solution of a great and intricate problem but that the rich should realize their duty to the poor. — Gertrude Atherton

Civilization in certain respects is as inadequate as it was a thousand years ago. — Gertrude Atherton

The only revenge worth having is success. — Gertrude Atherton

Self-admiration giveth much consolation. — Gertrude Atherton

I'm a farm boy from Connecticut, and I adopted urban life. — William Atherton

Never trust a woman who will not lie about her age after thirty. She is unwomanly and unhuman and there is no knowing what crimes she will commit. — Gertrude Atherton

Possibly there are few imaginative writers who have not a leaning, secret or avowed, to the occult. The creative gift is in very close relationship with the Great Force behind the universe; for aught we know, may be an atom thereof. It is not strange, therefore, that the lesser and closer of the unseen forces should send their vibrations to it occasionally; or, at all events, that the imagination should incline its ear to the most mysterious and picturesque of all beliefs — Gertrude Atherton

Stoicism is the fundamental characteristic of the French. — Gertrude Atherton

New York has always prided itself on its bad manners. That is the real source of our strength. — Gertrude Atherton

Success is a great healer. — Gertrude Atherton

Fame compensates for a column of wants. — Gertrude Atherton

No matter how hard a man may labor, some woman is always in the background of his mind. She is the one reward of virtue. — Gertrude Atherton

The best of all good friends is pride. — Gertrude Atherton

A woman without a past is like a fruitcake without brandy - insipid! — Nancy Atherton

Names are just words. I know that. But learning that the last name I'd used all my life was fake ...
"So what should I call myself, then?" I asked. "Sophie Atherton? Sophie Brannick?" Both sounded weird and made me feel like I was wearing clothes that didn't fit.
Mom smiled and brushed my hair away from my face. "You can call yourself whatever you want."
"Okay. Sophie Awesome Sparkle-Princess it is. — Rachel Hawkins

It is seldom that the imagination is disappointed in the 'ancestral piles' of England. — Gertrude Atherton

All women want to be understood until they understand themselves. — Gertrude Atherton

Maybe, when all was said and done, that was where love began and what kept it alive: the simple, everyday act of paying attention. — Nancy Atherton

I beg your pardon for questioning your judgement," she said. "It is nothing to me, after all, if it proves faulty. I am not the one responsible for the Marquess of Atherton's heir and sole offspring. I am not the one who will be toppled from my pedestal if the world learns I have not only permitted but encouraged my nephew to associate with the most shocking persons. I am not the one who-"
"I wish you were the one who had heard of the rule Silence is Golden," he said. — Loretta Chase

When I learned of Aunt Dimity's death, I was stunned. Not because she was dead, but because I had never known she'd been alive. — Nancy Atherton

The final result of too much routine is death in life. — Gertrude Atherton

Writing was my real life and I was more at home with the people of my imagination than with the best I met in the objective world. — Gertrude Atherton