Ivy Compton-Burnett Quotes

Ah, we have to be generous to be grateful ... One has oneself to be a giver.

Well, Buttermere, this is a day that is good to live and breathe in, that makes a man feel in his prime. Standing here in front of my house, I feel as young as when I moved into it thirty years ago, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty-nine. What aged man would you take me to be, as I step as it were casually into your view?

There is probably nothing like living together for blinding people to each other.

There isn't much to say. I haven't been at all deedy.

charm should be on the surface. It has no hidden use.

We are always children to our mothers.

Magnifying a matter is not the way to mend it.

I am ill at ease with people whose lives are an open book.

When I die, people will say it is the best thing for me. It is because they know it is the worst. They want to avoid the feeling of pity. As though they were the people most concerned!