Top 103 Quotes & Sayings by Taylor Caldwell - Page 2

The nature of human beings never changes; it is immutable. The present generation of children and the present generation of young adults from the age of thirteen to eighteen is, therefore, no different from that of their great-great-grandparents. Political fads come and go; theories rise and fall; the scientific 'truth' of today becomes the discarded error of tomorrow.

Men who retain irony are not to be trusted. They can't always resist an impulse to tickle themselves.

One, if one is sensible, blames government, not the servers of government, not those entangled in their governments.

One of my grandsons used to insist, when he was only 3 or 4, that he had been born and had lived in India

Saints rarely have friends; they are usually hated and derided, for they love and love is always rejected by hard-hearted men....saints do not advertise themselves; good men do not seek out a name in the world....the saints did what they did almost in stealth, asking nothing except that men love God.

No woman has ever been an authentic genius of the stature of men, but that does not enrage me

I am deeply convinced that happiness does not exist in this world

Animals do not betray; they do not exploit; they do not oppress; they do not enslave; they do not sin. They have their being, and their being is honest, and who can say this of man?

'He is very ugly,' said his mother.

I converse with my dog through ESP

I gratefully look forward to oblivion, but I must be sure of it

But what was a body? Dust, dung, urine, itches. It was the light within which was important, and it was not significant if that light endured after death, or if the soul was blinded eternally in the endless night of the suspired flesh.

The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

My literary success meant nothing to me

An honest politician is either a hypocrite - or he is doomed.

I have written two medical novels. I have never studied medicine, never seen an operation

I have anonymously helped many thousands

God's 'failures' are really man's failures.

I often reread books I have written

Man was the outlaw, the rebel, the distorted shape that scarred the earth, the voice that silenced the music of Eden, the hand that raised up obscenities and blasphemies. Man was the pariah-dog, the moral leper in this translucent mirror of Heaven. He was the muddier of crystal waters, the despoiler of forests, the murderer of the innocent, the challenger against God. He was the assassin of the saints and the prophets, for they spoke of what he WOULD NOT HEAR, in the darkness of his spirit!

The human race is not very admirable. It was a big mistake of God's.

It is not always wise to appear singular.

I shudder at the very thought of being born again into this world. Life to me . . . has been a monstrous, painful, agonizing affair, and the idea of repeating such an existence - even if better in a way - is horrifying to me. . . . I gratefully look forward to oblivion, but I must be sure of it.

The more wants a man has, the less freedom.

We are not old unless we desire to be.

Despair is sometimes the great energizer of the mind, though sometimes its flowering may be sterile.

Honest men live on charity in their age; the almshouses are full of men who never stole a copper penny. Honest men are the fools and the saints.

Contrary to general opinion, women are not so sentimental as men, but are much more hardheaded.

We, perhaps, have corrupted our children and our grandchildren by heedless affluence, by a lack of manliness, by giving the younger generation more money and liberty than their youth can handle, by indoctrinating them with sinister ideologies and false values, by permitting them, as young children, to indulge themselves in imprudence to superiors and defiance of duly constituted authority, by lack of prudent, swift punishment when the transgressed, by coddling and pampering them when they were children and protecting them from a very dangerous world.

Obscurity can be a fire of ambition in those who have stalwart souls

You see, when a nation threatens another nation the people of the latter forget their factionalism, their local antagonisms, their political differences, their suspicions of each other, their religious hostilities, and band together as one unit. Leaders know that, and that is why so many of them whip up wars during periods of national crisis, or when the people become discontented and angry. This is the explanation of all wars, all racial and religious hatreds, all massacres, and all attempts at genocide.

I'm not that interested in people

The American insanity for Loving Everybody is ruining my good temper and delivering my stomach to enormous bouts with acidity.

Reading, not just an escape, but an exercise in living.

If a nation has not God that nation must fall, but if a nation has God then all the powers of evil, and all the armies, cannot shake its foundations; no, not even if the whole world is arrayed against it.

There is no solid satisfaction in any career for a woman like myself. There is no home, no true freedom, no hope, no joy, no expectation for tomorrow, no contentment. I would rather cook a meal for a man and bring him his slippers and feel myself in the protection of his arms than have all the citations and awards and honors I have received worldwide, including the Ribbon of Legion of Honor and my property and my bank accounts. They mean nothing to me. And I am only one among the millions of sad women like myself.

. . . a statement that is repugnant to one's beliefs can be as true as one that is pleasurable.

A wise man distrusts his neighbor. A wiser man distrusts both his neighbor and himself. The wisest man of all distrusts his government.

I am not convinced that there is such a thing as a soul

If there is a God, then he was particularly harsh to me

Freedom was given to humanity by God. But, governments, if they can help it, never give freedom. They just hand out slavery with slogans.

I've always enjoyed poor health