May Sarton Quotes

... without darkness
Nothing comes to birth,
As without light
Nothing flowers.

~ May Sarton

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

~ May Sarton

A man with a talent does what is expected of him, makes his way, constructs, is an engineer, a composer, a builder of bridges. It's the natural order of things that he construct objects outside himself and his family. The woman who does so is aberrant.... We have to expiate for this cursed talent someone handed out to us, by mistake, in the black mystery of genetics.

~ May Sarton

I would like to believe when I die that I have given myself away like a tree that sows seed every spring and never counts the loss, because it is not loss, it is adding to future life. It is the tree's way of being. Strongly rooted perhaps, but spilling out its treasure on the wind.

~ May Sarton

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

~ May Sarton

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

~ May Sarton

People who cannot feel punish those who do.

~ May Sarton

To be desperate is to discover strength. We die of comfort and by conflict live.

~ May Sarton

We cannot afford not to fight for growth and understanding, even when it is painful, as it is bound to be.

~ May Sarton

Words are more powerful than perhaps anyone suspects, and once deeply ingrained in a child's mind, they are not easily eradicated.

~ May Sarton

Innocence is not pure so much as pleased,
Always expectant, bright-eyed, self-enclosed.

~ May Sarton