Naomi Mitchison > Quotes

“Travel light my child, as the Wanderer travels light, and his love will be with you.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“If he could sleep, she thought, sleep through the unhappy months, the heart's hunger, the months of death and cold and not having what you most want, and wake with time gone past and blurred and a new year coming. But perhaps it is too early in the year, she thought after that, and besides, he is not a bear.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“Perhaps she did not die,” said Halla, “perhaps her nurse turned into a bear and carried her away into the forest. Perhaps she was brought up by bears and dragons. Perhaps it was better for her in the end than being a king’s child.”
“That was never the story,” said Modolf.
“Forget the story,” said Halla.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“It could be verified that no princess was ever asked whether she wanted to be rescued and carried off by a dragon-slayer to a fate (no doubt) worse than death.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“Men went by ways of old Gods or not of any Gods, but by the violent wills of kings who were their own law.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“But Uggi was shocked and told her that lady dragons, who are in any case rare, stay at home and guard the treasure. Now this is
an ancient dragon fallacy, since in fact the lady dragons are very much fiercer than any other, especially when they have a nest full of eggs. And, although this is always denied, lady dragons have been known to kill and cat other dragons and, what is worse, to take their treasures.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“Heroes prided themselves on a thing called generosity. And what was generosity? It was the giving away of something to those that had not earned it, and it was usually done by those that had not earned it.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“A time came when all the riches in the State belonged to scarcely more than a hundred families, and of these many were unbelievably rich, though some had mortgaged their land and were deep in debt, and had nothing but the appearance of riches. The rest of the people worked for them, and were humbl and slavish through debt and anxiety and poverty, and there was no happiness.”
― Naomi Mitchison, The Corn King and the Spring Queen

“Forget the story.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“The baby girl was quite still except for her cheeks and lips sucking at her finger, and a rhythmical curving and straightening of her toes, as if some current of thick air were passing over them.”
― Naomi Mitchison, The Corn King and the Spring Queen

“The feminist problem must be solved, and fairly soon, before the confidence and courage which women got during the war and during the few years of prosperity immediately after it are broken down and wasted. It is, I think, up to the community, if it really wants to grow into a whole, straight, healthy entity, to fit, not women to the jobs - by pruning and forcing women out of their natural way of life - but the jobs to the women.”
― Naomi Mitchison

“In this place—one can never see from one end of a street to the other, let alone men’s hearts.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“Voices in the wind ripple of oats, voices
At the back of the blood, at the back of the brain,
Below the deepest roots of the trees, the blown shouting trees,
Below the oats, below the rocks, below the islands,
Behind the ploughing and the sowing, the harvesting and threshing,
At the back of life.”
― Naomi Mitchison, A Girl Must Live: Stories and Poems

“It may be better not to be afraid, and it may be that One and Two were truly not afraid. In the time before knowledge, in the time of dancing, none wasted thought or life in being afraid-not until the Wolf was on them, not till his teeth broke sucking into their neck-veins and the song broke into screechings. Three was afraid, but yet he thought he had the cure to fear; he thought the time would come when no pig need fear the wolf. But I-I know I am afraid, and afraid almost all the time, even when I am singing the song; the noise of ourselves singing it doesn't keep the fear out of the back of my head any longer. I can smell the Wolf's breath above all the sweet smells of spring and the rich smells of Autumn. I can hear the padding of the Wolf's feet a very long way off in the forest, coming nearer. And I know there is no way of stopping him. Even if I could help being afraid. But I cannot help it. I am afraid now.”
― Naomi Mitchison, The Fourth Pig

“VICTRIX CAVSA DIIS PLACVIT SED VICTA PVELLIS”
― Naomi Mitchison, The Conquered

“But if dragons have a fault—and they will laughingly admit that this is so—it is a certain graspingness, an inability to compromise.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“A lot of buildings were burnt out, others badly racked and unsafe, some completely smashed. Off the main road it was worse; here and there houses were being demolished, blasting going on sometimes, traffic being cleared, here a bridge being propped up, there a loudspeaker van telling people where to go for money or food. All windows gone everywhere... everywhere was the smell of plaster and burning, everywhere this incredible mess, everywhere people trailing about with a mattress or a bundle or a few pots and pans.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Among You Taking Notes...: The Wartime Diaries of Naomi Mitchison 1939 - 1945

“I will comb it with my own claws," said the dragon, "for I see that the child has hair the colour of gold, which is the only right colour for hair.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“Go far enough back and all humankind are cousins.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Early in Orcadia

“And remember, if a man were to see you, he would immediately try to steal everything you are wearing and carry it away and probably murder you as well.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“There was a terrible pain in his voice; it reminded Halla of a wound hurt; she wanted suddenly to lick the hurt place with a soft warm, bear's tongue, to lick it clean and into a shape of healing. But there was no wound on him that could be seen, nothing she could do but lay a hand on his shoulder, uncertainly.”
― Naomi Mitchison

“Those who live in caves, die in caves," said All-Father, "and the love of the Wanderer is to wanderers.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“Occasionally, and for everyone's good, mankind were instructed to offer a fresh and juicy princess to their own particular dragon. It was said that the princesses enjoyed the experience.
Certainly the dragons did.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“One of the difficulties of mankind is that they have the vice of inventiveness. It would be an easier world for dragons if this were not so, or if it could be kept within bounds, used for the better working of gold, setting of jewels, or such trading activities as bringing treasure from far countries within reach of dragons.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light

“Often it is from the critical outsider that we really get a sight of ourselves. And this outsider must be from somewhere beyond the western pattern, and yet not irritatingly certain that his methods are perfect... We could do with friendly eyes on us, the warm friendly eyes that can see the awkwrd joins and threadbare places in our fabric of society.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Other People's Worlds: Impressions of Ghana and Nigeria

“If mankind had remained as the most powerful kind of animal, but not killing one another, even progressing, becoming perhaps, as conscious of fine sounds and of the thoughts of others as we rats are, where would we be? If mankind had survived where would the rats be, where our thinking, our consideration for one another, our songs, our beauties? Could there have been room in the world for both?”
― Naomi Mitchison, A Girl Must Live: Stories and Poems

“We spent our lives serving the kind of state no decent man ought to serve. And now we are old enough to see what we've done.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Blood of the Martyrs: How the Slaves in Rome Found Victory in Christ

“History is continuous. It flows through us, sometimes fast, sometimes slow. In a society with little history, in the sense of movements, events, inventions struggles and newnesses, when movement seems to be slow, the elderly are respected and useful, the keepers of custom: their children want to be like them. This is a conservative society, often a happy one because it is not fragmented, but it is no fun for the innovators, those with new ideas, In a society where historical events crowd in so fast that people cannot keep up with them - which is what most societies are like at present - the old are comparatively useless and only likely to be respected for certain kinds of success, not for qualities of wisdom. Family continuity is no longer sought after. The one thing children don't want is to be like their parents.”
― Naomi Mitchison

“I began to realise that politics was not a special king of game for skilled players, but rather a whole aspect of life.”
― Naomi Mitchison, The Moral Basis of Politics

“But it was a beautiful horse, so beautiful, something like a unicorn but more intelligent looking, its great wings arching and quivering, better than a real horse, better than a ship. Riding on that horse you would need nothing, no cloak even. She dropped it on the edge of the marshland. Nothing. You could travel light.”
― Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light