May Sarton

Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness.

One does not find oneself by pursuing ones self but on the contrary by pursuing something else and learning through discipline or routine... who one is and wants to be.

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self.

In a total work, the failures have their not unimportant place.

Old age is not an illness, it is a timeless ascent. As power diminishes, we grow toward the light.

It is the privilege of those who fear love to murder those who do not fear it!

We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.

No partner in a love relationship... should feel that he has to give up an essential part of himself to make it viable.

For any writer who wants to keep a jounal, be alive to everything, not just to what you're feeling, but also to your pets to flowers, to what you're reading.

One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.

Revision is not going back and fussing around, but going forward into the process of creation

In the country of pain we are each alone.

Women are at last becoming persons first and wives second, and that is as it should be.

Gardening gives one back a sense of proportion about everything " except itself.

Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is richness of self.

May we agree that private life is irrelevant? Multiple, mixed, ambiguous at best - out of it we try to fashion the crystal clear, the singular, the absolute, and that is what is relevant; that is what matters.

A house that does not have one worn, comfy chair in it is soulless.

Don't forget that compared to a grownup person every baby is a genius. Think of the capacity to learn! The freshness, the temperament, the will of a baby a few months old!

Self-respect is nothing to hide behind. When you need it most it isn't there.

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

Help us to be ever faithful gardeners of the spirit, who know that without darkness nothing comes to birth, and without light nothing flowers.

A house that does not have one warm, comfy chair in it is soulless.

Without darkness nothing comes to birth, as without light nothing flowers.

We have to dare to be ourselves however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.

The garden is growth and change and that means loss as well as constant new treasures to make up for a few disasters.

Love opens the doors into everything as far as I can see including and perhaps most of all the door into ones own secret and often terrible and frightening real self.

Most people have to talk so they won't hear.

Dont forget that compared to a grownup person every baby is a genius.

No partner in a love relationship should feel that he has to give up an essential part of himself to make it viable.

The minute one utters a certainty, the opposite comes to mind.

It is sometimes the most fragile things that have the power to endure and become sources of strength.

It is the privilege of those who fear love to murder those who do not fear it

We are all jellyfish, too pitiful and too afraid of being disliked to be honest.

Everything that slows us down and forces patience everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

The more articulate one is, the more dangerous words become.

There is only one real deprivation... and that is not to be able to give one's gifts to those one loves most.

Though friendship is not quick to burn, it is explosive stuff.

True feeling justifies whatever it may cost.