Lucy Maud Montgomery quotes

We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Regret #Mistake #Should

Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Inspirational #Mistake #Air

In this world you've just got to hope for the best and prepare for the worst and take whatever God sends.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#World #Hoping For The Best #Worst

Those who can soar to the highest heights can also plunge to the deepest depths and the natures which enjoy most keenly are those which also suffer most sharply.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Suffering #Depth #Height

Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive-it's such an interesting world.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Thinking #Interesting #Alive

There are so many unpleasant things in the world already that there is no use in imagining any more.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Use #World

That is one good thing about this world - there are always sure to be more springs.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Spring #World #Good Things

Look at that sea, girls--all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Girl #Sea #Vision

It only seems as if you are doing something when you're worrying.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Worry

A good laugh is as good as a prayer sometimes.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Prayer #Laughing #Sometimes

I can just imagine myself sitting down at the head of the table and pouring out the tea," said Anne, shutting her eyes ecstatically. "And asking Diana if she takes sugar! I know she doesn't but of course I'll ask her just as if I didn't know.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Eye #Tea #Tables

Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Memories #Long #Remember

There's such a lot of different Annes in me. I sometimes think that is why I'm such a troublesome person. If I was just the one Anne it would be ever so much more comfortable, but then it wouldn't be half so interesting.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Thinking #Interesting #Different

Some people go through life trying to find out what the world holds for them only to find out too late that it's what they bring to the world that really counts.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Life #Wisdom #People

Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Positive #Encouraging #Uplifting

When I left Queen's my future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don't know what lies around the bend, but I'm going to believe that the best does.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Queens #Lying #Believe

If you can sit in silence with a person for half an hour and yet be entirely comfortable, you and that person can be friends. If you cannot, friends you'll never be and you need not waste time in trying.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Silence #Trying #Waste

We belong to the race that knows Joseph
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Race

Anybody is liable to rheumatism in her legs, Anne. It's only old people who should have rheumatism in their souls, though. Thanks goodness, I never have. When you get rheumatism in your soul you might as well go and pick out your coffin.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#People #Soul #Legs

I suppose all this sounds very crazy — all these terrible emotions always do sound foolish when we put them into our inadequate words. They are not meant to be spoken — only felt and endured.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Crazy #Sound #Emotion

Why must people kneel down to pray? If I really wanted to pray I’ll tell you what I'd do. I'd go out into a great big field all alone or in the deep, deep woods and I'd look up into the sky—up—up—up—into that lovely blue sky that looks as if there was no end to its blueness. And then I'd just feel a prayer.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Faith #Prayer #Sky

People laugh at me because I use big words. But if you have big ideas, you have to use big words to express them, haven't you?
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Ideas #People #Laughing

Perhaps, after all, romance did not come into one’s life with pomp and blare, like a gay knight riding down; perhaps it crept to one’s side like an old friend through quiet ways; perhaps it revealed itself in seeming prose, until some sudden shaft of illumination flung athwart its pages betrayed the rhythm and the music, perhaps . . . perhaps . . . love unfolded naturally out of a beautiful friendship, as a golden-hearted rose slipping from its green sheath.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Love #Beautiful #Gay

The only true animal is a cat, and the only true cat is a gray cat.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Cat #Animal #Gray

We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it's grand and great.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Sorry #New Years Resolution #Trying

Twilight drops her curtain down, and pins it with a star.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Stars #Twilight #Down And

It's so easy to be wicked without knowing it, isn't it?
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Knowing #Wicked #Easy

Since you are determined to be married, Miss Cornelia," said Gilbert solemnly, "I shall give you the excellent rules for the management of a husband which my grandmother gave my mother when she married my father." "Well, I reckon I can manage Marshall Elliott," said Miss Cornelia placidly. "But let us hear your rules." "The first one is, catch him." "He's caught. Go on." "The second one is, feed him well." "With enough pie. What next?" "The third and fourth are-- keep your eye on him.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Mother #Husband #Father

Anne "felt instinctively" that romance was peeping at her around a corner.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Romance #Peeping

If we don't chase things, sometimes the things following us can catch up." -L.M. Montgomery
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Sometimes #Following

Life, deal gently with her ... Love, never desert her
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Desert #Deals

Dear old world', she murmured, 'you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Lovely #Alive #World

I don't know, I don't want to talk as much. (...) It's nicer to think dear, pretty thoughts and keep them in one's heart, like treasures. I don't like to have them laughed at or wondered over.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Heart #Thinking #Treasure

Do you know what I think Mayflowers are, Marilla? I think they must be the souls of the flowers that died last summer, and this is their heaven.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Summer #Flower #Thinking

I am well in body though considerably rumpled up in spirit.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Body #Spirit #Wells

There is so much in the world for us all if we only have the eyes to see it, and the heart to love it, and the hand to gather it to ourselves--so much in men and women, so much in art and literature, so much everywhere in which to delight, and for which to be thankful.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Art #Eye #Men

You mayn't get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Fun #Looking Forward

I've come home in love with loneliness
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Loneliness #Home #Coming Home

God's in His heaven, alls right with the world', whispered Anne softly.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Heaven #World

Night is beautiful when you are happy--comforting when you are in grief--terrible when you are lonely and unhappy.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Beautiful #Lonely #Grief

Desire grows by what it feeds on.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Desire #Grows

Gossip, as usual, was one-third right and two-thirds wrong.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Two #Gossip #Usual

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Autumn #World #October

At seventeen dreams DO satisfy because you think the realities are waiting for you farther on.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Dream #Reality #Thinking

There is a book of Revelation in every one's life, as there is in the Bible.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Book #Revelations #Book Of Revelation

Oh, of course there's a risk in marrying anybody, but, when it's all said and done, there's many a worse thing than a husband.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Husband #Risk #Done

But if you call me Anne, please call me Anne with an 'e'.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Call Me #Please

And if you couldn't be loved, the next best thing was to be let alone.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Next

Oh, sometimes I think it is of no use to make friends. They only go out of your life after awhile and leave a hurt that is worse than the emptiness before they came.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Friendship #Fake People #Hurt

Jane's stories are too sensible. Then Diana puts too much murders into hers. She says most of the time she doesn't know what to do with the people so she kills the off to get rid of them." -Anne Shirley
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#People #Too Much #Stories

I know that in everybody's life must come days of depression and discouragement when all things in life seem to lose savour. The sunniest day has its clouds;but one must not forget the sun is there all the time.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Depression #Clouds #Sun

Having adventures comes natural to some people", said Anne serenely. "You just have a gift for them or you haven't.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Adventure #People #Natural

Tears don't hurt like the ache does.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Hurt #Tears #Doe

You're not eating anything," said Marilla sharply, eying her as if it were a serious shortcoming. Anne sighed. I can't. I'm in the depths of despair. Can you eat when you are in the depths of despair?" I've never been in the depths of despair, so I can't say," responded Marilla. Weren't you? Well, did you ever try to IMAGINE you were in the depths of despair?" No, I didn't." Then I don't think you can understand what it's like. It's very uncomfortable a feeling indeed.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Thinking #Feelings #Despair

I wonder why people so commonly suppose that if two individuals are both writers they must therefore be hugely congenial," said Anne, rather scornfully. "Nobody would expect two blacksmiths to be violently attracted toward each other merely because they were both blacksmiths.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Two #People #Wonder

For there is no bond more lasting than that formed by the mutual confidences of that magic time when youth is slipping from the sheath of childhood and beginning to wonder what lies for it beyond those misty hills that bound the golden road.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Lying #Childhood #Magic

You're never safe from being surprised until you're dead.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Safe

When twilight drops her curtain down And pins it with a star Remember that you have a friend Though she may wander far.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Stars #Twilight #May

Ruby Gillis thinks of nothing but young men, and the older she gets the worse she is. Young men are all very well in their place, but it doesn't do to drag them into everything, does it?
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Men #Thinking #Doe

I've loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#School #Broke

People told her she hadn't changed much, in a tone which hinted they were surprised and a little disappointed she hadn't.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#People #Littles #Tone

My pen shall heal, not hurt.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Hurt #Heal #Pens

Satirize wickedness if you must--but pity weakness.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Weakness #Wickedness #Pity

Make a little room in your plans for romance again, Anne, girl. All the degrees and scholarships in the world can’t make up for the lack of it. ~Aunt Josephine to Anne in Anne Of Green Gables
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Girl #Romance #Rooms

One can't get over the habit of being a little girl all at once.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Girl #Littles #Habit

Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Thinking #World #Spirit

Don't be very frightened, Marilla. I was walking the ridge-pole and I fell off. I suspect I have sprained my ankle. But, Marilla, I might have broken my neck. Let us look on the bright side of things.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Broken #Sides #Necks

There is another bend in the road after this. No one knows what will happen.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Bends In The Road

The beauty of winter is that it makes you appreciate spring.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Spring #Winter #Appreciate

You have the itch for writing born in you. It's quite incurable. What are you going to do with it?
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Writing #Born

All things great are wound up with all things little.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Littles #Wounds

But really, Marilla, one can't stay sad very long in such an interesting world, can one?
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Long #Interesting #World

There isn't any such thing as an ordinary life. (92)
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Ordinary #Ordinary Life

Nobody with any real sense of humor *can* write a love story. . . . Shakespeare is the exception that proves the rule. (90-91)
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Real #Writing #Stories

Secrets are generally terrible. Beauty is not hidden--only ugliness and deformity.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Secret #Deformity #Terrible

Nobody can keep on being angry if she looks into the heart of a pansy for a little while.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Heart #Looks #Littles

If you can't be cheerful, be as cheerful as you can.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Cheerful

All i want is a dress with puffy sleaves
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Dresses #Want #Classic

And he wrote, "When the moon rises tonight think of me and I'll think of you.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Moon #Thinking #Tonight

I've done my best, and I begin to understand what is meant by 'the joy of strife'. Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Winning #Joy #Trying

You never know what peace is until you walk on the shores or in the fields or along the winding red roads of Prince Edward Island in a summer twilight when the dew is falling and the old stars are peeping out and the sea keeps its mighty tryst with the little land it loves. You find your soul then. You realize that youth is not a vanished thing but something that dwells forever in the heart.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Summer #Stars #Fall

Never be silent with persons you love and distrust," Mr. Carpenter had said once. "Silence betrays.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Silence #Silent #Said

I don't know which is worse - to have somebody you DON'T like ask you to marry him or NOT have some one you DO like. Both are rather unpleasant.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Love

I know you're a fool, Jim Hardy, but for heaven's sake pretend you're not for five minutes.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Heaven #Sake #Fool

Houses are like people - some you like and some you don't like - and once in a while there is one you love.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#People #House #One You Love

Nothing mattered much to me for a time there, after you told me you could never love me, Anne. There was nobody else -- there never could be anybody else for me but you. I've loved you ever since that day you broke your slate over my head in school.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#School #Broke

I have a dream," he said slowly. "I persist in dreaming it, although it has often seemed to me that it could never come true. I dream of a home with a hearth-fire in it, a cat and dog, the footsteps of friends -- and YOU!
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Dream #Dog #Cat

I wish we could see perfumes as well as smell them. I'm sure they would be very beautiful.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Beautiful #Smell #Wish

Which would you rather be if you had the choice--divinely beautiful or dazzlingly clever or angelically good?
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Beautiful #Clever #Choices

Have you ever noticed how many silences there are Gilbert? The silence of the woods....of the shore....of the meadows....of the night....of the summer afternoon. All different because the undertones that thread them are different.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Summer #Night #Silence

Oh Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them," exclaimed Anne.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Half #Looking Forward #Pleasure

I've just been imagining that it was really me you wanted after all and that I was to stay here for ever and ever. It was a great comfort while it lasted. But the worst of imagining things is that the time comes when you have to stop and that hurts.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Hurt #Comfort #Worst

It's dreadful what little things lead people to misunderstand each other.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#People #Littles #Little Things

...“Oh, Marilla, looking forward to things is half the pleasure of them,” exclaimed Anne. “You mayn’t get the things themselves; but nothing can prevent you from having the fun of looking forward to them. Mrs. Lynde says, ‘Blessed are they who expect nothing for they shall not be disappointed.’ But I think it would be worse to expect nothing than to be disappointed.”...
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Fun #Blessed #Thinking

But you have such dimples," said Anne, smiling affectionately into the pretty, vivacious face so near her own. "Lovely dimples, like little dents in cream. I have given up all hope of dimples. My dimple-dream will never come true; but so many of my dreams have that I mustn't complain. Am I all ready now?
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Dream #Lovely #Faces

It's fun to be almost grown up in some ways, but it's not the kind of fun I expected, Marilla. There's so much to learn and do and think that there isn't time for big words.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Fun #Thinking #Way

But pearls are for tears, the old legend says," Gilbert had objected. "I'm not afraid of that. And tears can be happy as well as sad. My very happiest moments have been when I had tears in my eyes—when Marilla told me I might stay at Green Gables—when Matthew gave me the first pretty dress I ever had—when I heard that you were going to recover from the fever. So give me pearls for our troth ring, Gilbert, and I'll willingly accept the sorrow of life with its joy." -Anne
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Eye #Giving #Joy

A plate of apples, an open fire, and a jolly good book are a fair substitute for heaven.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Book #Fire #Apples

How fair the realm Imagination opens to the view,
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Views #Imagination #Realms

You see," she concluded miserably, "when I can call like that to him across space--I belong to him. He doesn't love me--he never will--but I belong to him.
-- Lucy Maud Montgomery

#Soulmate #Space