Elizabeth Arthur > Quotes

“Memories are peculiar...You think the past is there, all fixed and stable, but it is really chock full of surprises and endlessly susceptible to change...So maybe it is true that we are constantly rewriting our past; they are not something fixed and unchangeable for all time. There is a basic structure, of course, a canvas stretched across boards, which cannot be remodeled at will, but the surface of that canvas can be shaded, rearranged, touched up, continually worked on to correspond to the needs of the present. In fact, the present moment is largely the focal point from which you shape the direction of your future and juggle the implications of your past.”
― Elizabeth Arthur, Beyond the Mountain

“There was the sheer Antarctic landscape, and the mind moving across it like a brush on canvas, until the brush was laid aside, and the snow buried it.”
― Elizabeth Arthur, Antarctic Navigation

“If you found something aesthetically displeasing, like Maple Sugar Estates, then the chances were that you would find it also morally repugnant—repugnant if for no other reason than because it justified making everything the same, taking life and dragging it to its lowest common denominator.”
― Elizabeth Arthur, Antarctic Navigation: A Novel

“All the world’s great inventors started with practical knowledge and skills. We need that today as much as we ever did.”
― Elizabeth Arthur, The Mystery of the Abecedarian Academy