The Bookshop Penelope Fitzgerald Quotes

A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and as such it must surely be a necessary commodity.

Morality is seldom a safe guide for human conduct.

She had a kind heart, though that is not of much use when it comes to the matter of self-preservation.

Courage and endurance are useless if they are never tested.

Surely you have to succeed, if you give everything you have.' 'I don't see why. Everyone has to give everything they have eventually. They have to die. Dying can't be called a success.

Understanding makes the mind lazy.

She did not know that morality is seldom a safe guide for human conduct.

It was defeat, but defeat is less unwelcome when you are tired.

Old age is not the same thing as historical interest,’ he said. ‘Otherwise we should both of us be more interesting than we are.

I have read Lolita, as you requested. It is a good book, and therefore you should try to sell it to the inhabitants of Hardborough. They won't understand it, but that is all to the good. Understanding makes the mind lazy.

What seemed delicacy in him was usually a way of avoiding trouble; what seemed like sympathy was the instinct to prevent trouble before it started. It was hard to see what growing older would mean to such a person. His emotions, from lack of exercise, had disappeared almost altogether. Adaptability and curiosity, he had found, did just as well.

Florence had noticed one or two eccentricities in herself lately, which might be the result of hard work, or of age, or of living alone. When the letters came, for example, she often found herself wasting time in looking at the postmarks and wondering whoever they could be from, instead of opening them in a sensible manner and finding out at once.

Her courage, after all, was only a determination to survive. The

A good book is the precious life-blood of a masterspirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and as such it must surely be a necessary commodity.

Not to succeed in one thing is to fail in all.’ Far more frightening than any poltergeist is the spectre of loneliness in old age.

I enjoy very little leisure in the evenings. But don’t misunderstand me, I find a good book at my bedside of incalculable value. When I eventually retire I’ve no sooner read a few pages than I’m overwhelmed with sleep.

Um bom livro é o precioso sangue vital de um espírito mestre, embalsamado e entesourado de propósito para uma vida para lá da vida.

It’s a peculiar thing to take a step forward in middle age, but having done it I don’t intend to retreat.

She had once seen a heron flying across the estuary and trying, while it was on the wing, to swallow an eel which it had caught. The eel, in turn, was struggling to escape from the gullet of the heron and appeared a quarter, a half, or occasionally three-quarters of the way out. The indecision expressed by both creatures was pitiable. They had taken on too much.

She ought to go down to the beach. It was Thursday, early closing, and it seemed ungrateful to live so close to the sea and never look at it for weeks on end.

La fuerza de voluntad es inútil si no se va a algún lado

—No debo preocuparme —dijo ella—. Mientras hay vida, hay esperanza. —Qué idea tan terrible

La valentía de ella, al fin y al cabo, no era otra cosa que su determinación por sobrevivir.

You’re either a child or a woman, and neither of them have any idea how to relax.

Will-power is useless without a sense of direction.

They were all kind to their hostess, because it made life easier.

- Dicen por ahí que está usted a punto de abrir una librería. Eso significa que no le importa enfrentarse a cosas inverosímiles. (…) - ¿Por qué cree que abrir una librería es inverosímil? -le gritó al viento-. ¿La gente de Hardoborough no quiere comprar libros? - Han perdido el deseo por las cosas raras -dijo Raven mientras seguía limando-. Se venden más arenques ahumados, por ejemplo que truchas están medio ahumadas y tienen un sabor más delicado. Y no me diga usted que los libros no constituyen una rareza en si mismos.

se había engañado a sí misma al dejarse convencer, por un momento, de que los seres humanos no se dividen en exterminadores y exterminados, y que los exterminadores tienden a colocarse en la situación dominante en cuanto pueden. La fuerza de voluntad es inútil si no se va a algún lado.

In 1959 Florence Green occasionally passed a night when she was not absolutely sure whether she had slept or not. This was because of her worries as to whether to purchase a small property, the Old House, with its own warehouse on the foreshore, and to open the only bookshop in Hardborough. The uncertainty probably kept her awake. She had once seen a heron flying across the estuary and trying, while it was on the wing, to swallow an eel which it had caught. The eel, in turn, was struggling to escape from the gullet of the heron and appeared a quarter, a half, or occasionally three-quarters of the way out. The indecision expressed by both creatures was pitiable. They had taken on too much. Florence felt that if she hadn’t slept at all—and people often say this when they mean nothing of the kind—she must have been kept awake by thinking of the heron.

Ze wist maar al te goed, terwijl ze daar in het doffe namiddaglicht zat met de potsierlijke verzameling kommen en schalen voor haar uitgestald, dat eenzaamheid tot eenzaamheid sprak en dat hij een rechtstreeks appél op haar gevoelens deed.

Wat ik het meest in mensen waardeer is de enige deugd die ze met goden en dieren gemeen hebben, en die je daarom eigenlijk geen deugd kunt noemen. Ik heb het over moed.

Quizá su batalla para establecerse en Old House había terminado, o quizá se equivocaba al pensar que había encontrado su lugar o que podría encontrarlo alguna vez.

La docilidad no es lo mismo que la amabilidad. S personalidad líquida iba tanteando el terreno, y se introducía sigilosamente por los puntos más vulnerables de los demás hasta encontrar un lugar apropiado en el que instalarse y sacar de él el máximo provecho.

Una vez había visto volar por encima del estuario a una garza que intentaba, mientras estaba en el aire, tragarse una anguila que acababa de pescar. La anguila, a su vez, luchaba por escapar del gaznate de la garza, y se le veía un cuarto, la mitad o, en ocasiones, tres cuartos del cuerpo colgando. La indecisión que expresaban ambas criaturas era lastimosa. Se habían propuesto demasiado.

El corage y la perseverancia son inútiles si no se ponen a prueba

Hojear libros es parte de la tradición de una libreria -le dijo Florence-. Debes dejar que se queden y toquen los libros.

La antigüedad no es lo mismo que el interés histórico —dijo—. De lo contrario, nosotros dos seríamos más interesantes de lo que somos.

Un buen libro es la preciosa savia del alma de un maestro, embalsamada y atesorada intencionadamente para una vida más allá de la vida.

Hojear libros es parte de la tradición de una librería —le dijo Florence—. Debes dejar que se queden y toquen los libros.

Igual que seguía considerando que la gravedad es una fuerza que atrae las cosas hacia sí, y no una simple cuestión que se encarga de las que menos resistencia opongan a ella, estaba segura de que el carácter era una lucha entre las buenas y las malas intenciones.

Ninguna de las dos estaba preparada para reconocer que le gustaría proteger a la otra. Habría sido como permitir que el miedo entrara en la habitación.

Es un buen libro y, por lo tanto, debería intentar vendérselo a los habitantes de Hardborough. No lo entenderán, pero será mejor así. Entender las cosas hace que la mente se vuelva perezosa.

It is a good book, and therefore you should try to sell it to the inhabitants of Hardborough. They won’t understand it, but that is all to the good. Understanding makes the mind lazy.

— Няма да си позволя да се тревожа. – увери го Флорънс. — Докато има живот, има и надежда. — Каква ужасна мисъл! – измърмори господин Брандиш.

I’m sure you didn’t. You’re either a child or a woman, and neither of them have any idea how to relax.’ ‘You watch it,’ said Christine.

The town itself was an island between sea and river, muttering and drawing into itself as soon as it felt the cold. Every fifty years or so it had lost, as though careless or indifferent to such things,anther means of communication.

... and believe me, Mrs. Green, she'll be pegging out her own washing until the day she dies.

December 11 1959 Dear Mr Thornton, Coward! Yours sincerely, Florence Green

There was no bank manager there, no Vicar, not even Mr Thornton, Florence's solicitor, or Mr Drury, the solicitor who was not her solicitor.

You're thinking of opening a bookshop.. Violet was interested in it. She wanted to have one or two of those words of hers with you about it.

They were delightful evenings, for there was no need to listen closely, and in front of the slumberous rows the coloured slides followed each other in no sort of order, disobedient to the Vicar’s voice.

I don't know that men are better judges than women, said Florence, but they spend much less time regretting their decisions.

Ein gutes Buch ist der kostbare Lebenssaft eines meisterlichen Geistes, einbalsamiert und aufbewahrt zum Zweck eines Lebens über das Leben hinaus (...)

Florence tenía buen corazón, aunque eso sirve de bien poco cuando de lo que se trata es de sobrevivir.

persevering secretary of the Society for Providing Public Access to Places of Interest and Beauty,