Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Margot Asquith

1. “All I can say about my mind is that, like a fire carefully laid by a good housemaid, it is one that any match will light.”
2. "From the happy expression on their faces you might have supposed that they welcomed the war. I have met with men who loved stamps, and stones, and snakes, but I could not imagine any man loving war."
3. "He could not see a belt without hitting below it."
4. "The first element of greatness is fundamental humbleness (this should not be confused with servility); the second is freedom from self; the third is intrepid courage, which, taken in its widest interpretation, generally goes with truth; and the fourth --the power to love --although I have put it last, is the rarest."
5. "There are big men, men of intellect, intellectual men, men of talent and men of action; but the great man is difficult to find, and it needs -- apart from discernment -- a certain greatness to find him."
6. "To marry a man out of pity is folly; and, if you think you are going to influence the kind of fellow who has ''never had a chance, poor devil,'' you are profoundly mistaken. One can only influence the strong characters in life, not the weak; and it is the height of vanity to suppose that you can make an honest man of anyone."