Frasi di Frances Hodgson Burnett

pagina 2

“Se guardi nel modo giusto, puoi vedere che il mondo intero è un giardino.”

“Credo che molti non sappiano quanto si celi dietro una storia, quante parti non ne siano state raccontate, quanto di più sia accaduto rispetto a quello che leggono nel libro che tengono fra le mani e in cui si immergono.
Le storie sono un po' come le lettere. Dopo avere scritto una lettera, quante volte si pensa: «Ah, perchè non ho detto questa cosa?». Scrivendo un libro, si racconta ciò che si ricorda in quel momento, e se si dovesse narrare tutto quello che è davvero successo, non si arriverebbe mai alla fine. Fra le righe di una storia c'è sempre un'altra storia, che non è mai stata ascoltata e può solo essere indovinata da chi ha abbastanza intuizione per farlo. La persona che scrive potrà anche non saperne mai niente, ma a volte lo sa, e vorrebbe poter ricominciare da capo.”

“Padrona Mary, bastian contrario,
come cresce il tuo giardino,
con campanule d'argento, con conchiglie
e con una fioritura di giunghiglie?”

“Mary Mary pensieri neri,
come ti viene il giardino?
Margherite gialle fra i peri,
campanule d'argento e lupino.”

“Cose assai sorprendenti possono accadere a chi, avendo nella mente un pensiero sgradevole e scoraggiante, abbia il buonsenso di accorgersene e scacciarlo via in tempo sostituendolo con un altro pensiero piacevole e ottimista. Due cose non possono occupare contemporaneamente lo stesso posto.

Là dove coltivi la rosa, ragazzo mio,
Non può crescere il cardo.”

“Da quando sono nato, non ho mai preso un raffreddore. Sono sempre stato in giro per la brughiera con ogni tempo, come i conigli. La mamma dice che ho respirato troppa aria fresca, in dodici anni, per poter prendere il raffreddore. Sono robusto come il nodo di un ramo di biancospino.”

“But I suppose there might be good in things, even if we don't see it.”

“My mother always says people should be able to take care of themselves, even if they're rich and important.”

“To speak robin to a robin is like speaking French to a Frenchman”

“As long as you have a garden you have a future and as long as you have a future you are alive.”

“So long as I know what's expected of me, I can manage.”

“All women are princesses, it is our right.”

“Oh, how she did love that queer, common boy!”

“Never thee stop believin' in th' Big Good Thing an' knowin' th' world's full of it - and call it what tha' likes. Tha' wert singin' to it when I come into t' garden.”

“Yes," answered Sara, nodding. "Adversity tries people, and mine has tried you and proved how nice you are.”

“If Sara had been a boy and lived a few centuries ago, her father used to say, 'she would have gone about the country with her sword drawn, rescuing and defending everyone in distress. She always wants to fight when she sees people in trouble.”

“Perhaps you can feel if you can't hear. Perhaps kind thoughts reach people somehow, even through windows and doors and walls. Perhaps you feel a little warm and comforted.”

“You can lose a friend in springtime easier than any other season if you're too curious.”

“Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book.”

“Of course there must be lots of Magic in the world, but people don't know what it is like or how to make it.”

“Things happen to people by accident.”

“It's so easy that when you begin you can't stop. You just go on and on doing it always.”

“It's true," she said. "Sometimes I do pretend I am a princess. I pretend I am a princess, so that I can try and behave like one.”

“She looked into the staring glass eyes and complacent face, and suddenly a sort of heartbroken rage seized her. She lifted her little savage hand and knocked Emily off the chair, bursting into a passion of sobbing- Sara who never cried.”

“If nature has made you a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart. And though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that.”

“I am writing in the garden. To write as one should of a garden one must write not outside it or merely somewhere near it, but in the garden.”

“That's what I look at some people for. I like to know about them. I think them over afterward.”

“Soldiers don't complain… I am not going to do it; I will pretend this is part of a war.”

“You and me are a good bit alike. We're neither of us good lookin', and we're both as sour as we look.”

“You can't marry this Archibald. He's a gloomy, miserable cripple that hides himself away in that horrible house. You've said it yourself, you can't believe you love him and neither can I!”

“Yorkshire’s th’ sunniest place on earth when it is sunny.”