Helen Hunt Jackson > Quotes

“The goldenrod is yellow,
The corn is turning brown...
The trees in apple orchards
With fruit are bending down.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson

“Bee to the blossom, moth to the flame; Each to his passion; what's in a name? ”
― Helen Hunt Jackson

“The woman who creates and sustains a home, and under whose hands children grow up to be strong and pure men and women, is a creator second only to God.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson

“By all these lovely tokens
September days are here,
With summer's best of weather
And autumn's best of cheer.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson

“Stain my eyes as I may, on all sides all is black.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson

“We have flattered ourselves by inventing proverbs of comparison in matter of blindness,--"blind as a bat," for instance. It would be safe to say that there cannot be found in the animal kingdom a bat, or any other creature, so blind in its own range of circumstance and connection, as the greater majority of human beings are in the bosoms of their families. Tempers strain and recover, hearts break and heal, strength falters, fails, and comes near to giving way altogether, every day, without being noted by the closest lookers-on.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“Next time!" In what calendar are kept the records of those next times which never come?”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“The wild mustard in Southern California is like that spoken of in the New Testament. . . . Its gold is as distinct a value to the eye as the nugget gold is in the pocket.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“Gazing around, looking up at the lofty pinnacles above, which seemed to pierce the sky, looking down upon the world,--it seemed the whole world, so limitless it stretched away at her feet,--feeling that infinite unspeakable sense of nearness to Heaven, remoteness from earth which comes only on mountain heights, she drew in a long breath of delight, and cried: "At last! at last, Alessandro! Here we are safe! This is freedom! This is joy!”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“Will not the Senorita trust me?"
Ramona smiled faintly through her tears. "Yes," she said. "I will trust you. You are Alessandro, are you not?"
"Yes, Senorita," he answered, greatly surprised, "I am Alessandro.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“But pride carries its banner to the last; and fast as it is driven from one field unfurls it in another, never admitting that there is a shade less honor in the second field than in the first, or in the third than in the second; and so on till death.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“There was the whole world; if she loved him like this, nothing could make them wretched; his love would be enough for her, - and for him hers was an empire.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“There had been no crises of incident, or marked movements of experience such as in Felipe's imaginations of love were essential to the fulness of its growth. This is a common mistake on the part of those who have never felt love's true bonds. Once in those chains, one perceives that they are not of the sort full forged in a day. They are made as the great iron cables are made, on which bridges are swung across the widest water-channels,--not of single huge rods, or bars, which would be stronger, perhaps, to look at; but myriads of the finest wires, each one by itself so fine, so frail, it would barely hold a child's kite in the wind: by hundreds, hundreds of thousands of such, twisted, re-twisted together, are made the mighty cables, which do not any more swerve from their place in the air, under the weight and jar of the ceaseless traffic and tread of two cities, than the solid earth swerves under the same ceaseless weight and jar. Such cables do not break.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“But undying memories stood like sentinels in her breast. When the notes of doves, calling to each other, fell on her ear, her eyes sought the sky, and she heard a voice saying, "Majella!”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“Dead men tell no tales," says the proverb. One wishes they could. We should miss some spicy contributions to magazine and newspaper literature; and a sudden silence would fall upon some loud-mouthed living.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Bits of Talk About Home Matters

“When one thinks in the wilderness, alone, . . . many things become clear. I have been learning, all these years in the wilderness, as if I had had a teacher.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“Ramona was, to the world at large, a far more important person than the Señora herself. The Señora was of the past, Ramona was of the present.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“There is nothing so skilful in its own defence as imperious pride. It has an ingenious system of its own, of reprisals, -- a system so ingenious that the defeat must be sore indeed, after which it cannot still find some booty to bring off! And even greater than this ingenuity at reprisals is its capacity for self-deception. In this regard, it outdoes vanity a thousandfold. Wounded vanity knows when it is mortally hurt; and limps off the field, piteous, all disguises thrown away...Such pride as this has led many a forlorn hope, on the earth, when all other motives have died out of men's breasts; has won many a crown, which has not been called by its true name.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“Only a night from old to new;
Only a sleep from night to morn.
The new is but the old come true;
Each sunrise sees a new year born.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Poems

“But surfaces are deceitful, and eyes see little. Considering its complexity, the fineness and delicacy of its mechanism, the results attainable by the human eye seem far from adequate to the expenditure put upon it. We have flattered ourselves by inventing proverbs of comparison in matter of blindness, -- "blind as a bat," for instance. It would be safe to say that there cannot be found in the animal kingdom a bat, or any other creature, so blind in its own range of circumstance and connection, as the greater majority of human beings are in the bosoms of their families.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“Mute syllabled in rhythmic light”
― Helen Hunt Jackson

“Father, I scarcely dare to pray,
So clear I see, now it is done,
That I have wasted half my day
And left my work but just begun.
"A Last Prayer"”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Poems

“The struggle within cultures to be the one true culture is one of the great tragedies of our age.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona

“Why did i halt and weakly tremble?
Even in heaven the memory smote --
Fool to be dumb and to dissemble!
Alas, for the song I never wrote.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson, Poems

“I do not think we have a right to withhold from the world a word or a thought any more than a deed which might help a single soul.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson

“For all men are of kin to one who dies.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson

“Foxes have holes, and birds in nests are fed:
My brother had not where to lay his head.”
― Helen Hunt Jackson