Eleanor H. Porter > Quotes

“Be glad. Be good. Be brave.”
― Eleanor Hodgman Porter

“What men and women need is encouragement. Their natural resisting powers should be strengthened, not weakened ... Instead of always harping on a man's faults, tell him of his virtues. Try to pull him out of his rut ... Hold up to him his better self, his real self that can dare and do and win out! ... People radiate what is in their minds and in their hearts.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“Just breathing isn't living!”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“... there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“Oh, yes; the game was to just find something about everything to be glad about—no matter what 'twas”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“... if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times to be glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it—SOME.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“What men and women need is encouragement. Their natural resisting powers should be strengthened, not weakened…. Instead of always harping on a man’s faults,tell him of his virtues. Try to pull him out of his rut of bad habits. Hold up to him his better self, his REAL self that can dare and do and win out! … The influence of a beautiful, helpful, hopeful character is contagious, and may revolutionize a whole town…. People radiate what is in their minds and in their hearts. If a man feels kindly and obliging, his neighbors will feel that way, too, before long.But if he scolds and scowls and criticizes—his neighbors will return scowl for scowl, and add interest! … When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it. When you know you will find the good—you will get that…”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“Oh, yes," nodded Pollyanna, emphatically. He [her father] said he felt better right away, that first day he thought to count 'em. He said if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times [in the Bible] to be glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it - SOME.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“It's funny how dogs and cats know the inside of folks better than other folks do, isn't it?”
― Eleanor H. Porter

“When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it. When you know you will find the good—you will get that....”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“And most generally there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“It'll be just lovely for you to play -- it'll be so hard. And there's so much more fun when it is hard!”
― Eleanor Hodgman Porter, Pollyanna

“Oh, but Aunt Polly, Aunt Polly, you haven't left me any time at all just to- to live.”
― Pollyanna Whittier, Pollyanna

“...she had been too busy wishing things were different to find much time to enjoy things as they were.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“But you only have to live one minute at a time, Ruth, and any one can endure anything for one minute at a time!”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna Grows Up

“Miss Polly actually stamped her foot in irritation. "There you go like the rest," she shouted. "What game?"
At last Nancy told her all about the story of how the crutches arrived instead of a doll, and how Pollyanna's father had taught her that there was always something to be glad about.
Miss Polly couldn't believe it. "how can someone ever be glad of crutches?" she demanded to know.
"Simple" said Nancy. "In Pollyanna's case, she could be glad she didn't need them!”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“Oh, of course I'd be BREATHING all the time I was doing those things, Aunt Polly, but I wouldn't be living. You breathe all the time you're asleep, but you aren't living. I mean living—doing the things you want to do: playing outdoors, reading (to myself, of course), climbing hills, talking to Mr. Tom in the garden, and Nancy, and finding out all about the houses and the people and everything everywhere all through the perfectly lovely streets I came through yesterday. That's what I call living, Aunt Polly. Just breathing isn't living!”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“Aunt Polly is all stirred up over it. You see, she wants Uncle Tom to have what he wants, only she wants him to want what she wants him to want. See?" Mrs. Carew laughed suddenly. (22)”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna Grows Up

“I was growlin' one day 'cause I was so bent up and crooked; an'what do ye s'pose the little thing said? ... She said I could be glad, anyhow, that I didn't have ter stoop so far ter do my weedin' - 'cause I was already bent part way over.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“But, poor little kid, it's too bad you should find it out - so soon."
"Find out what?"
"That the lonesomest place in all the world is in a crowd in a big city.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna Grows Up

“if God took the trouble to tell us eight hundred times to be glad and rejoice, He must want us to do it—SOME.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“troubles are poor things to hug. They've got too many prickers.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna Grows Up

“I long ago discovered that you can't TELL about Pollyanna. The minute you try to, she sounds priggish and preachy, and--impossible. Yet you and I know she is anything but that.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna Grows Up

“Then you--weren't lovers?" Pollyanna's voice was tragic with dismay.
"Never!"
"And it isn't all coming out like a book? . . . Oh dear! And it was all going so splendidly," almost sobbed Pollyanna. "I'd have been so glad to come--with Aunt Polly."
"And you won't--now?" The man asked the question without turning his head.
"Of course not! I'm Aunt Polly's!”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“Why, it would be such fun,' he chuckled, 'to just forget all about the hours when the sun didn't shine, and remember only the nice, pleasant ones.”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Just David

“It's funny how dogs and cats know the insides of folks better than other folks do, isn't it?”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“you know you never know how much you use things, till you don't have 'em. And eyes, too. Did you ever think what a lot you do with eyes? I didn't till I went to the Sanatorium. There was a lady there who had just got blind the year before. I tried to get her to play the game—finding something to be glad about, you know—but she said she couldn't; and if I wanted to know why, I might tie up my eyes with my handkerchief for just one hour. And I did. It was awful. Did you ever try it?”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna Grows Up

“You see, when you’re hunting for the glad things, you sort of forget the other kind—like”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna

“I don't see how you can find anything about this poor-people business to be glad for. Of course we can be glad for ourselves that we aren't poor like them; but whenever I'm thinking how glad I am for that, I get so sorry for them that I CAN'T be glad any longer. Of course we COULD be glad there were poor folks, because we could help them. But if we DON'T help them, where's the glad part of that coming in?”
― Eleanor H. Porter, Pollyanna Grows Up