Mistral Quotes & Sayings

A crippled child
Said, "How shall I dance?"
Let your heart dance
We said.
Then the invalid said:
"How shall I sing?"
Let your heart sing
We said
Then spoke the poor dead thistle,
"But I, how shall I dance?"
Let your heart fly to the wind
We said.
Then God spoke from above
"How shall I descend from the blue?"
Come dance for us here in the light
We said.
All the valley is dancing
Together under the sun,
And the heart of him who joins us not
Is turned to dust, to dust. — Gabriela Mistral

You shall create beauty not to excite the senses
but to give sustenance to the soul. — Gabriela Mistral

The best Chateauneuf-du-Papes are among the most natural expressions of grapes, place and vintage. Chateauneuf-du-Pape vineyards are farmed organically or biodynamically, and the region's abundant sunshine and frequent wind (called 'le mistral') practically preclude the need for treating the fields with herbicides or pesticides. — Robert M. Parker Jr.

When the Good Lord begins to doubt the world, he remembers that he created Provence. — Frederic Mistral

What the soul is to the body, so is the artist to his people, — Gabriela Mistral

In the secret of night, my prayer climbs like the liana, My prayer is, and I am not. It grows, and I perish. I have only my hard breath, my reason and my madness. I cling to the vine of my prayer. I tend it at the root of the stalk of night. — Gabriela Mistral

Let the earth look at me, and bless me, for now I am fecund and sacred, like the palms and the furrows. — Gabriela Mistral

Love beauty; it is the shadow of God on the universe — Gabriela Mistral

I have all that I lost and I go carrying my childhood like a favorite flower that perfumes my hand. — Gabriela Mistral

At first it had been a torrent; now it was a tide, with a flow and ebb. During its flood she could almost fool them both. It was as if out of her knowledge that it was just a flow that must presently react was born a wilder fury, a fierce denial that could flag itself and him into physical experimentation that transcended imagining, carried them as though by momentum alone, bearing them without volition or plan. It was as if she knew somehow that time was short, that autumn was almost upon her, without knowing yet the exact significance of autumn. It seemed to be instinct alone: instinct physical and instinctive denial of the wasted years. Then the tide would ebb. Then they would be stranded as behind a dying mistral, upon a spent and satiate beach, looking at one another like strangers, with hopeless and reproachful (on his part with weary: on hers with despairing) eyes. — William Faulkner

Dusk
I feel my heart melting
in the mildness like candles:
my veins are slow oil
and not wine,
and I feel my life fleeing
hushed and gentle like the gazelle. — Gabriela Mistral

At this moment, by an undeserved stroke of fortune, I am the direct voice of the poets of my race and the indirect voice for the noble Spanish and Portuguese tongues. — Gabriela Mistral

Writing tends to cheer me; it always soothes my spirit and blesses me with the gift of an innocent, tender, childlike day. It is the sensation of having spent a few hours in my homeland, with my customs, free whims, my total freedom. — Gabriela Mistral

The poet is an untier of knots, and love without words is a knot, and it drowns. — Gabriela Mistral

Mistral. Take the wheel for a while. I'll go down to the galley — Daniel Silva

Nothing remains but desire, and desire comes howling down Elysian Fields like a mistral. — Walker Percy

All night I have suffered; all night my flesh has trembled to bring forth its gift. The sweat of death is on my forehead; but it is not death, it is life! — Gabriela Mistral

Give me a few bits of wool to stick on the car, a good gust of mistral wind, and I could come up with a better aerodynamic package on the bridge at Avigon — Jean Alesi

Let the radiance of my enthusiasms envelop the poor courtyard and the bare classroom. Let my heart be a stronger column and my goodwill purer gold than the columns and gold of rich schools. — Gabriela Mistral

I believe in prophetic speech . . . still. I believe in Cassandra, I believe in Electra and in the charming Antigone. . . . For me, they're more alive than the [Institute for] Intellectual Cooperation and its choice group of old men. — Gabriella Mistral

My grief and my smile begin in your face, my son. — Gabriela Mistral

Rory's big labradoodle made a snap judgement that Frankie was everything her life had been missing up until now. She flung herself into the girl's arms, wiggling and whining, a shaggy mass of chocolate-colored enthusiasm.
"Mistral likes you, I see." While he, the one who filled the dog's food dish, had gotten nothing but suspicious glances since he arrived two days earlier.
"of course you like me" she said, baby-talking into the dog's fur, "I'm extremely likeable."
If the dog's expression was any indication, Frankie was about to get nominated for sainthood....
She glanced at him. "Maybe she'd like you more if you weren't so... testosterone-y."
"But then you might like me less — Roxanne Snopek

Many things we need can wait. The child cannot. Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed. To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is today. — Gabriela Mistral

Love that stammers, that stutters, is apt to be the love that loves best. — Gabriela Mistral

Aioli intoxicates gently, fills the body with warmth, and the soul with
enthusiasm. In its essence it concentrates the strength, the gaiety of
Provence: sunshine. — Frederic Mistral

We are guilty of many errors and many faults, but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made, and his senses are being developed. To him we cannot answer 'Tomorrow,' his name is today. — Gabriela Mistral

Aioli epitomizes the heat, the power, and the joy of the Provencal sun, but it has another virtue
it drives away flies. — Frederic Mistral

For me, religiosity is ... the constant remembrance of the presence of the soul. — Gabriela Mistral

I write poetry because I can't disobey the impulse; it would be like blocking a spring that surges up in my throat. For a long time I've been the servant of the song that comes, that appears and can't be buried away. How to seal myself up now? ... It no longer matters to me who receives what I submit. What I carry out is, in that respect, greater and deeper than I, I am merely the channel. — Gabriela Mistral

I have a faithful joy and a joy that is lost. One is like a rose, the other, a thorn. The one that was stolen I have not lost. — Gabriela Mistral

Speech is our second possession, after the soul-and perhaps we have no other possession in this world. — Gabriela Mistral

Now my belly is as noble as my heart. — Gabriela Mistral

Now I am nothing but a veil; all my body is a veil beneath which a child sleeps. — Gabriela Mistral

Many things can wait. Children cannot. Today their bones are being formed, their blood is being made, their senses are being developed. To them we cannot say "tomorrow." Their name is today. — Gabriela Mistral

There is the joy of being healthy and fair, but there is overall the beauty, the immense joy of being useful. — Gabriela Mistral