History records the large events or the general condition of society, but only an individual can put down the way of life in a small town.
Gladys TaberMost cats feel that bird-catching is their duty; the instinct goes back to prehistoric times. Amber keeps in practice by chasing moths.
Gladys TaberA good recipe for a human reducing breakfast is a lot of good things to eat, and three spaniels and two cats to eat with.
Gladys TaberBut housekeeping is fun. It is one job where you enjoy the results right along as you work. You may work all day washing and ironing, but at night you have the delicious feeling of sunny clean sheets and airy pillows to lie on. If you clean, you sit down at nightfall with the house shining and faintly smelling of wax, all yours to enjoy right then and there. And if you cook—that creation you lift from the oven goes right to the table.
Gladys TaberPerhaps, after all, our best thoughts come when we are alone. It is good to listen, not to voices but to the wind blowing, to the brook running cool over polished stones, to bees drowsy with the weight of pollen. If we attend to the music of the earth, we reach serenity. And then, in some unexplained way, we share it with others.
Gladys TaberWhoever decided that comic valentines were a good idea should have been sent away to think it over.
Gladys TaberThe curious thing about fishing is you never want to go home. If you catch something, you can't stop. If you don't catch anything, you hate to leave in case something might bite.
Gladys TaberIf I had Aladdin's lamp and the usual three wishes, the first would always be, 'Give me the first day of June.
Gladys TaberWell, any love makes us vulnerable. Whatever we love will give the gift of pain somewhere along the road. But who would live sealed in spiritual cellophane just to keep from ever being hurt? There are a few people like that. I'm sorry for them. I think they are as good as dead.
Gladys TaberAfter all, catching something is purely a by-product of our fishing. It is the act of fishing that wipes away all grief, lightens all worry, dissolves fear and anxiety.
Gladys Tabernothing decorates a home like books. There they are, waiting to decorate the mind, too!
Gladys TaberWhen Father smiled, it was like the sun coming out, and spring and summer in your heart.
Gladys TaberTraveling is all very well if you can get home at night. I would be willing to go around the world if I came back in time to light the candles and set the table for supper.
Gladys TaberAmericans tend to believe they can do anything with or without any training or experience.
Gladys TaberPerhaps what makes friendship and love exciting is the continuing discovery of another personality.
Gladys TaberThere must be hundreds of unsung heroes and heroines who first tasted strange things growing - and think of the man who first ate a lobster. This staggers the imagination. I salute him every time I take my nutcracker in hand and move the melted-butter pipkin closer.
Gladys TaberHappiness of heart can never be measured out and bundled up, it's intangible. We keep running after it, grasping for it, and the heat of our running so seldom brings it closer. But now and then there may be a moment. We look at something and know it is good and beautiful. Those moments are happiness.
Gladys TaberAlmost all words do have colour and nothing is more pleasant than to utter a pink word and see someone's eyes light up and know it is a pink word for him or her too.
Gladys TaberThe creative instincts, the love force must be nourished with every beat of our hearts until they overbalance the destructive instincts.
Gladys TaberNovember wind has a sound different from any other. It is easy to imagine the cave of the winds in some mythical Northland where the winds are born and the gods send them out to conquer the quiet air.
Gladys TaberOld houses, I thought, do not belong to people ever, not really, people belong to them.
Gladys TaberMy general attitude toward life when I first get up is of deep suspicion, verging on hatred. ... I am simply basted together until after breakfast.
Gladys TaberWhat would happen if all the populations on the planet simply refused to fight human beings they did not even know?
Gladys TaberI cannot imagine a cat in an Obedience ring, running around in the hot sun and doing things on command. For it would not make sense. Whereas a dog is tolerant of your not making sense and only wants to fix things so you are happy.
Gladys TaberI resolve to be more patient, less selfish, cherish my friends, and in my small way help whoever needs help. I cannot conceivably influence the world's destiny, but I can make my own life more worthwhile. I can give some help to some people; that is not vital to all the world's problems and yet, I think if everyone did just that, we might see quite a world in our time!
Gladys Taberthe real evidence of growing older is that things level off in importance ... Days are no longer jagged peaks to climb; time is a meadow, and we move over it with level steps.
Gladys TaberA cat is, by and large, sophisticated and complex, and capable of creating three-act plays around any single piece of action.
Gladys Taber