Quote#Books & Reading
Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from…
Quote byFrances Hodgson Burnett · 1849–1924
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: A Little Princess (1905), Chapter 6, "The Diamond Mines".
English (original)
Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book. People who are fond of books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment. The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is one not easy to manage.
— Frances Hodgson Burnett
More from Frances Hodgson Burnett
“Eh!” she said, “but you are like an old woman. Don’t you care?” “It doesn’t matter,” said Mary, “whether I care or not.” “You are right enough there,” said Mrs. Medlock. “It doesn’t.”
So she began to feel a slight interest in Dickon, and as she had never before been interested in any one but herself, it was the dawning of a healthy sentiment.
[T]o be able to learn things quickly isn't everything. To be kind is worth a great deal to other people.
Perhaps if her mother had carried her pretty face and her pretty manners oftener into the nursery Mary might have learned some pretty ways too.
If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.
In India she had always felt hot and too languid to care much about anything. The fact was that the fresh wind from the moor had begun to blow the cobwebs out of her young brain and to waken her up a little.