We can see the film stars of yesterday in yesterdayโs films, hear the voices of poest and singers on a record, keep the plays of dead dramatists upon our bookshelves, but the actor who holds his audience captive for one brief moment upon a lighted stage vanishes forever when the curtain falls.
Daphne du MaurierI could fight with the living but I could not fight the dead. If there was some woman in London that Maxim loved, someone he wrote to, visited, dined with, slept with, I could fight her. We would stand on common ground. I should not be afraid. Anger and jealousy were things that could be conquered. One day the woman would grow old or tired or different, and Maxim would not love her anymore. But Rebecca would never grow old. Rebecca would always be the same. And she and I could not fight. She was to strong for me.
Daphne du MaurierWe are all ghosts of yesterday, and the phantom of tomorrow awaits us alike in sunshine or in shadow, dimly perceived at times, never entirely lost.
Daphne du MaurierI wish I was a woman of about thirty-six dressed in black satin with a string of pearls.
Daphne du MaurierThis house sheltered us, we spoke, we loved within those walls. That was yesterday. To-day we pass on, we see it no more, and we are different, changed in some infinitesimal way. We can never be quite the same again.
Daphne du MaurierSometimes itโs a sort of indulgence to think the worst of ourselves. We say, โNow I have reached the bottom of the pit, now I can fall no further,โ and it is almost a pleasure to wallow in the darkness. The trouble is, itโs not true. There is no end to the evil in ourselves, just as there is no end to the good. Itโs a matter of choice. We struggle to climb, or we struggle to fall. The thing is to discover which way weโre going.
Daphne du Maurier