Florida Scott-Maxwell

“You need only claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality.”

“Life does not accommodate you; it shatters you. Every seed destroys its container, or else there would be no fruition.”

“You have neat, tight expectation of what life out to give you, but you won't get it. That isn't what life does. Life does not accommodate you, it shatters you. It is meant to, and it couldn't do it better. EVERY SEED DESTROYS ITS CONTAINER OR ELSE THERE WOULD BE NO FRUITION.”

“Age puzzles me. I thought it was a quiet time. My seventies were interesting, and fairly serene, but my eighties are passionate. I grow more intense as I age. To my own surprise I burst out with hot conviction. Only a few years ago I enjoyed my tranquility; now I am so disturbed by the outer world and by human quality in general that I want to put things right, as though I still owed a debt to life. I must calm down. I am far too frail to indulge in moral fervor.”

“Difficulties are what makes it honorable and interesting to be alive.”

“No matter how old a mother is she watches her middle-aged children for signs of improvement.”

“I grow more intense as I age”

“Anger must be the evergy that has not yet found its right channel."---the Measure of my Days”