Grenville Quotes & Sayings

You grow your best thoughts in silence, solitude, and meditation. When you relax and think deeply, you are giving your inmost powers their best opportunity to disclose themselves. — Grenville Kleiser

We're of one mind, Grenville and I, and the mind is hers, on account of my being a man and not having one. — Loretta Chase

The criterion of true beauty is, that it increases in examination; of false, that it lessens. There is something, therefore, in true beauty that corresponds with the right reason, and it is not merely the creature of fancy. — George Grenville

Ebooks have many advantages - publishers don't have to make guesses about how many books to print, books need never go "out of print", and hard-to-find books can be easily available. So far, the only limitation seems to be finding a way for the writer to be paid. — Kate Grenville

You were intended not only to work, but to rest, laugh, play, and have proper leisure and enjoyment. To develop an all-around personality you must have interest outside of your regular vocation that will serve to balance your business responsibilities. — Grenville Kleiser

The world needs all the help you can give by way of cheerful, optimistic, inspiring thought and personal example. — Grenville Kleiser

The good thoughts you send out to others will return to you multiplied. — Grenville Kleiser

Church members are either pillars or caterpillars. The pillars hold up the church, and the caterpillars just crawl in and out. — Grenville Kleiser

Those who have attained things worth having in this world have worked while others idled, have persevered while others gave up in despair, have practiced ... the valuable habits of self-denial, industry, and singleness of purpose. — Grenville Kleiser

I think we all waste a lot of time measuring ourselves up against impossible standards in lots of ways. We need to learn a few things, one of which being that physical beauty comes in all shapes and sizes, including a lot that the women's magazines have never even thought of. — Kate Grenville

Life does not stand still. Where there is no progress, there is disintegration. — Grenville Kleiser

You were alive for such a short time and then you went back into the great silence. The only ones who didn't vanish were the artists. While you were reading their words and looking at their pictures they were still alive, and you shared some of their life too. — Kate Grenville

It is by translating your fine sense of aspiration into actual lofty deeds that you grow toward your ideal. Link your lofty thoughts to earnest, active effort, and good results will inevitably follow. The great things you intend to do some time must have a beginning if they are ever to be done, so begin something worthwhile today. — Grenville Kleiser

A rumor is like a check
never endorse it till you're sure it's genuine. — Grenville Kleiser

Just as you are unconsciously influenced by outside advertisement, announcement, and appeal, so you can vitally influence your life from within by auto-suggestion. The first thing each morning, and the last thing each night, suggest to yourself specific ideas that you wish to embody in your character and personality. Address such suggestions to yourself, silently or aloud, until they are deeply impressed upon your mind. — Grenville Kleiser

You are already of consequence in the world if you are known as a man of strict integrity. — Grenville Kleiser

He sat in the chapel for hours picking his way through fugues. A dozen notes, hardly music. But then those few notes spoke to each other, subject and answer, by repetition, by diminution, by augmentation, even looping backwards on themselves in a course like the retrograde motion of Mars. He listened as if he had as many ears as fingertips, and, like a blind man, could feel textures that were barely there. At the end of two or three pages of music he would hear all the voices twining together in a construction of such dizzying power that the walls of the chapel could barely contain it. — Kate Grenville

Each language has its own take on the world. That's why a translation can never be absolutely exact, and therefore, when you enter another language and speak with its speakers, you become a slightly different person; you learn a different sort of world. — Kate Grenville

Man had been given a brain that could think in numbers, and it could not be coincidence that the world was unlocked by that very tool. To understand any aspect of the cosmos was to look on the face of God: not directly, but by a species of triangulation, because to think mathematically was to feel the action of God in oneself. — Kate Grenville

Some kinds of order were too vast for a human to know. But below the chaos of a single human life, you could trust that a cosmic breve was sounding. — Kate Grenville

I came across this quote by Grenville Kleiser. It exemplifies the change I desire to be; the woman who stands beyond the window of each human eye, and reflects the love of God in all that she does--a servant ready and prepared for His work. Let your intentions be good - embodied in good thoughts, cheerful words, and unselfish deeds - and the world will be to you a bright and happy place in which to work and play and serve. ~ Grenville Kleiser — Darlene Schacht

Ain't nothing in this world just for the taking...A man got to pay a fair price for taking...Matter of give a little, take a little. — Kate Grenville

Everything in his life had come down to the sensation of her fingers against his. The person he was, the history he carried within himself, every joy and grief he had ever experienced, slipped way like an irrelevant garment. He was nothing but skin, speaking to another skin, and between the skins there was no need to find any words. — Kate Grenville

For years I've wanted to write about the Australian countryside, but, like most Australians, I've only got a tourist's knowledge of it. I thought that if I disobeyed that basic rule of writing - write about what you know - I'd write a thin and inauthentic book. — Kate Grenville

This place had been here long before him. It would go on sighing and breathing and being itself after he had gone, the land lapping on and on, watching, waiting, getting on with its own life. — Kate Grenville

One of the things I love about writing is the way you can use what you know and what you've experienced, without actually writing about yourself. I've given many of my experiences and perceptions to many of the characters in the book, but none of them is me. — Kate Grenville

It is often better to have a great deal of harm happen to one than a little; a great deal may rouse you to remove what a little will only accustom you to endure. — Grenville Kleiser

Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment. — Grenville Kleiser

Let your intentions be good - embodied in good thoughts, cheerful words, and unselfish deeds - and the world will be to you a bright and happy place in which to work and play and serve — Grenville Kleiser

I would never write a sentence that didn't have a nice rhythm, or at least I wouldn't leave it to be published like that. It seems to me that prose mustn't be prosaic. — Kate Grenville

Your life is like a book. The title page is your name, the preface your introductions to the world. The pages are a daily record of your efforts, trials, pleasures, discouragements, and achievements. Day by day your thoughts and acts are being inscribed in your book of life. Hour by hour, the record is being made that must stand for all time. Once the word 'finish' must be written, let it then be said of your book that it is a record of noble purpose, generous service, and work well-done. — Grenville Kleiser

Keep a definite goal of achievement constantly in view. Realize that work well and worthily done makes life truly worth living. — Grenville Kleiser

Anyone can be lovely, but you are rare. — Kate Grenville

I love writing fiction - you can take just what you want from a place, and leave the rest. — Kate Grenville

Periods of wholesome laziness, after days of energetic effort, will wonderfully tone up the mind and body. — Grenville Kleiser

Do not let trifles disturb your tranquility of mind. The little pin-pricks of daily life when dwelt upon and magnified, may do great damage, but if ignored or dismissed from thought, will disappear from inanition. — Grenville Kleiser

Be grateful for the joy of life. Be glad for the privilege of work. Be thankful for the opportunity to give and serve. Good work is the great character-builder, the sweetener of life, the maker of destiny. Let the spirit of your work be right, and whether your task be great or small you will then have the satisfaction of knowing it is worth while. — Grenville Kleiser

Nothing much interested me other than playing with language and telling stories and doing something with the wonders of the world around me. — Kate Grenville

A word to the wise isn't as good as a word from the wise. — Grenville Kleiser

You need have no dull hours if you are a sincere lover of books. — Grenville Kleiser

Be an earnest student of yourself. Study your leading desires and tendencies. — Grenville Kleiser

The way to health, harmony, and happiness is primarily mental. — Grenville Kleiser

What he had not learned from Latin or Greek he was learning from the people of New South Wales. It was this: you did not learn a language without entering into a relationship with the people who spoke it with you. His friendship with Tagaran was not a list of objects, or the words for things eaten or not eaten, thrown or not thrown. It was the slow constructing of the map of a relationship. — Kate Grenville

The quality of your thoughts determines the quality of your personal character. — Grenville Kleiser

Today is the day in which to express your noblest qualities of mind and heart, to do at least one worthy thing you have long postponed. — Grenville Kleiser

Make the most of today. Translate your good intentions into actual deeds. — Grenville Kleiser

Other people had religion to give them a connection to eternity, and good luck to them, but religion was too narrow for her, too unforgiving, too literal. Literature encompassed everything, forbade nothing, endorsed nothing. Writers, like scientists, had the greatest respect for the world as it truly was. Their job wasn't to judge but to examine, to experiment, draft after draft, century after century. — Kate Grenville

He'll have to do without me, Jamie thought, not looking back. And then clearly, as if he'd been told, he knew Grenville /could/ do without him. There was somewhere else he had to go now, somewhere else he had to be. — S.E. Hinton

How short a time a person had to be alive, he thought. How long to be dead. — Kate Grenville

The most successful men have used seeming failures as stepping stones to better things. — Grenville Kleiser

There is honor in labor. Work is the medicine of the soul. It is more: it is your very life, without which you would amount to little. — Grenville Kleiser

All this, grassy paddock, cows, trees - he had thought it was Nature. But now he could see that that was ignorance, or lack of imagination. It was not Nature. It was actually property. — Kate Grenville

Down deep in every soul has a hidden longing, impulse, and
ambition to do something fine and enduring ... If you are willing,
great things are possible to you. — Grenville Kleiser

It was a long time since whe's been young and it was unlikely that she'd ever been lovely. She stood like a man, square-on. Her breasts pushed out the old tee-shirt, but it was clear from the way she stood that she'd forgotten about breasts being sexy. Her breasts made bulges in her shirt, the same way her knees made bulges in her black track pants, that was all. — Kate Grenville

The habit of being uniformly considerate towards others will bring increased happiness to you. — Grenville Kleiser

Cheerfulness has a directly beneficial influence upon health. — Grenville Kleiser

And there is an earlier Wilson cycle, too, a billion years old, entrapped alongside the Appalachians: the Grenville, which rises to the surface in Central Park, New York, to remind us that the human and urban is no more than foam on the sea of the past. — Richard Fortey

Idealism is one of the greatest forces in the world. It makes seeming impossibilities possible and succeeds where prudence fails. But unless the idealist is brave and has the courage to face the truth, his idealism creates nothing. — Grenville Kleiser

You can develop good judgement as you do the muscles of your body - by judicious, daily exercise. — Grenville Kleiser

I read a lot of poetry, and I love what it does with language. I love music, too, and I think there's probably no coincidence there, that the rhythm of the words is almost as important as the words themselves, and when you can get the two working together, which usually takes me about 20 goes, I feel a huge satisfaction. — Kate Grenville

People around you are quick to read your attitude of thought toward them. Inner thoughts and feelings are communicated in ways other than by the spoken word. — Grenville Kleiser

By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character. — Grenville Kleiser

Vigilantly guard your mind against erroneous and destructive thought as you would guard your house against burglars and assassins. — Grenville Kleiser

The principal object of your reading should be for the acquisition of useful knowledge , and the strengthening, refining, and ennobling of your character. — Grenville Kleiser

This is the time to speak the word of appreciation. — Grenville Kleiser

I'm a great believer in the experiential theory of writing. — Kate Grenville

'The Secret River' began because, at the age of 50, I suddenly realised I knew nothing about how my own family had got its foothold in Australia. — Kate Grenville

Tact, the kind of tact you should cultivate, is not a form of deception or make-believe, but a cultivated taste which gives fine perception in seeing and doing what is best under all circumstances. There is nothing which will so readily bring you into favor, or disarm an opponent, as the right use of tact. — Grenville Kleiser

The dragons of twentieth-century life are ignorance, incompetence, slackness and disloyalty, she said. — Kate Grenville

Books are ever available friends, ready to serve you at will. — Grenville Kleiser

Words are a pretty blunt instrument. There's always going to be slippage between the words and the infinite complexities of a thought. As a writer, I find that frustrating, but as a social animal, I wouldn't have it any other way. — Kate Grenville

I love to write a book out of questions; in fact, I think it's the only way my writing can operate, if there's something I don't understand. — Kate Grenville

Actions are destiny's pen. — Grenville Kleiser

Death is God's way of telling you not to be such a wise guy. — Grenville Kleiser

A ton of regret never makes an ounce of difference. — Grenville Kleiser

Study words so that you can use them significantly, effectively, worthily. — Grenville Kleiser

The self that had laughed and raised his glass and shouted out the words with the others seemed to him now to be foolishly, dangerously, disastrously innocent. — Kate Grenville

A woman's heart is much like the moon, always changing but always has a man in it. — Grenville Kleiser

He had seen God in the night sky long before he understood its patterns. — Kate Grenville

To every problem there is already a solution whether you know it or not. — Grenville Kleiser

A culture produces ideas which are being explored, which of interest to that culture at that moment. And I think one of the things a writer can do is to take those ideas and go a bit further with them. — Kate Grenville

I don't think the physical object of a book has any sacred quality, so in principle I think ebooks are great - just another way for stories and story-tellers to connect. — Kate Grenville

Your mind grows through use. — Grenville Kleiser

The choice word, the correct phrase, are instruments that may reach the heart, and awake the soul if they fall upon the ear in melodious cadence; but if the utterance be harsh and discordant they fail to interest, fall upon deaf ears, and are as barren as seed sown on fallow ground. — Grenville Kleiser

The idea of perfection can be a tyrant you should overthrow, to gain your freedom. — Kate Grenville

If I can aid one in distress,
If I can make a burden less,
If I can spread more happiness,
Lord, show me how. — Grenville Kleiser

By the time you learn the rules of life, you're too old to play the game. — Grenville Kleiser

To get the most out of your life, plant in your mind seeds of constructive power that will yield fruitful results. — Grenville Kleiser

When I went to university in Colorado, I was encouraged to write very innovative, experimental things, and some of the short stories in 'Bearded Ladies' are a little bit experimental. — Kate Grenville

It is possible to make each year bring with it a lasting gift to add to the fullness of experience, to be treasured up, savored, and remembered. They need not be startling, these gifts of the years; they may be things that lie within the reach of all. — Grenville Kleiser

Life is so great in its opportunities and possibilities, that you should rise confidently above the inevitable trifles incident to daily contact with the world. Life is too precious to be sacrificed for the nonessential and transient ... Ignore the inconsequential. — Grenville Kleiser

Others, tiring of the sound of Buxtehude and Bach for hours on end, would complain there was no tune. That was exactly the thing he liked best about a fugue, the fact that it could not be sung. A fugue was not singular, as a melody was, but plural. It was a conversation. — Kate Grenville

Most men have worried about things which never happened, and more men have been killed by worry than by hard work. — Grenville Kleiser

The chairs - turned towards one another in groups of twos and threes - seemed like the seats of ghosts in close conversation with one another. There were sets of two chairs - very close to one another - in the far corners of the room, which spoke of recent whispered flirtations, over cold game pie and iced champagne; there were sets of three and four chairs, that recalled pleasant animated discussions over the latest scandals; there were chairs straight up in a row that still looked starchy, critical, acid, like antiquated dowagers; there were a few isolated, single chairs, close to the table, that spoke of gourmands intent on the most recherche dishes, and others overturned on the floor, that spoke volumes on the subject of my Lord Grenville's cellars. — Emmuska Orczy

Learn to depend upon yourself by doing things in accordance with your own way of thinking. — Grenville Kleiser

BEFORE HE CAME INTO a lot of money in 1839, Richard Plantagenet Temple Nugent Brydges Chandos Grenville, second Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, led a largely uneventful life. — Bill Bryson

I've always had a problem with conventional punctuation of dialogue because it does seem to me to set it off too much from the narrative. I mean, in life, things don't stop while somebody says something, and then stuff starts up again; it's all happening at once. — Kate Grenville

Until a thing was seen, could it be said to exist? And if his eye through the telescope were the one that brought a certain star into existence, did not that make him a creator? — Kate Grenville

Better untaught than ill-taught. — Grenville Kleiser

But he would give the Spainish no satisfaction. When they offered him a drink, he smashed the glass and ate the shards, preferring his own English blood to their sweet wine. He died soon after. — Marc Aronson