Margaret Mitchell

“Don't be a goose!”

“Why will people persist in reading strange meanings into the simplest of story? Is it not enough that a writer can entertain for a few hours with narrative without being suspected of 'significances' or symbolism or 'social trends'?”

“Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.”

“No, my dear, I'm not in love with you, no more than you are with me, and if I were, you would be the last person I'd ever tell. God help the man who ever really loves you. You'd break his heart, my darling, cruel, destructive little cat who is so careless and confident she doesn't even trouble to sheathe her claws.”

“Voi Scarlett, sinä olet huono valehtelemaan! Niin, elämässä on nyt loistoa - eräänlaista. Siinähän vika juuri onkin. Entisissä ajoissa ei ollut loistoa, mutta niissä oli suloa, kauneutta, hiljaista taikaa.”

“Her burdens were her own and burdens were for shoulders strong enough to bear them.”

“If he's forgotten me, I'll make him remember me. I'll make him want me again.”

“Tuijottaessaan Williin hämärässä hallissa Ashley mietti, ettei hän kenessäkään ollut kohdannut sen veroista sankaruutta kuin Scarlett O'Harassa, joka läksi valloittamaan maailmaa äitinsä samettisissa ikkunaverhoissa ja kukon pyrstösulka hatussaan.”

“No", sanoi Mummo katsoen häntä tutkivasti kasvoihin, "mikä Tarassa on hullusti? Mitä sinä salailet?"Scarlett katsoi teräviin vanhoihin silmiin ja näki, että hän voisi kertoa totuuden kyynelittä. Ei kukaan voinut itkeä Fointainen Mummon seurassa ilman hänen nimenomaista lupaansa."Äiti on kuollut", sanoi Scarlett soinnuttomasti.Hänen käsivarrellaan olevan käden ote tiukkeni, kunnes se nipisti, ja keltaisten silmien ryppyiset luomet värähtivät."Jenkitkö hänet tappoivat?""Hän kuoli lavantautiin. Kuoli - päivää ennenkuin minä tulin kotiin.""Älä ajattele sitä", sanoi Mummo ankarasti, ja Scarlett näki hänen nielaisevan. "Entä isäsi?""Isä - isä ei ole entisellään.""Mitä tarkoita? Anna kuulua. Onko hän sairas?""Järkytys - hän on niin kummallinen - hän ei ole -""Älä käytä minulle puhuessasi sellaisia sanontoja kuin että hän ei ole entisellään. Tarkoitatko, että hän on mennyt sekaisin päästään?"Oli helpottavaa kuulla totuus noin peittelemättömänä. Miten kiltti Mummo Fontaine olikaan, kun ei osoittanut sellaista myötätuntoa, joka olisi pannut itkemään.”

“Hän näki kaiken edessään uusin silmin. Hän oli jättänyt tyttövuotensa taakseen jonnekin sen pitkän matkan varteen, jonka hän oli taivaltanut Taraan. Hän ei ollut enää taipuisaa savea, johon jokainen uusi kokemus painoi jälkensä. Savi oli kovettunut jonakin tuon mittaamattoman päivän hetkenä, jota oli kestänyt tuhannen vuotta. Tänä iltana häntä viimeisen kerran hoivattiin kuin lasta. Nyt hän oli nainen, ja nuoruus oli jäänyt hänen taakseen.Ei, hän ei voinut eikä tahtonut etsiä turvaa Ellenin eikä Geraldin sukulaisten luota. O'Harat eivät voineet elää armopaloista. O'Harat pitivät itse huolen omistaan. Hänen taakkansa oli hänen omansa ja hänen hartiansa olivat kyllin voimakkaat kantamaan sen. Hämmästymättä hän totesi, katsellen alas korkeuksistaan, että hänen hartiansa jaksaisivat nyt kantaa mitä tahansa, kun ne kerran olivat kantaneet pahimman, mitä hänelle saattoi tapahtua.”

“Levätessään siinä pää painettuna Mammyn rintaa vasten Scarlett hätkähti näitä kahta sanaa: raskas taakka. Nämä samat sanat olivat surisseet hänen aivoissaan yhtä mittaa koko iltapäivän. Nyt hän muisti koko laulun, ja se painoi hänen mielensä yhä murheellisemmaksi.Vielä muutaman päivän kun jaksamme taakkaa kantaa / tuosta viis vaikk'ei koskaan se kevenisikään! / Vielä muutaman päivän kun astumme maantien santaa -"Tuosta viis vaikk'ei koskaan se kevenisikään", sanat toistuivat hänen väsyneessä mielessään. Eikö hänen kuormansa milloinkaan keventyisi? Eikö kotiin Taraan tuleminen merkinnytkään suloista helpotusta, vaan yhä uusia taakkoja kannettavaksi?”

“Notkolle painunut sohva, jolla he istuivat, suuri, korkea kirjoituspöytä ja äidin hauras, leikkauksilla koristettu tuoli sen edessä, hylly, jonka lokerot olivat vielä täynnä hänen hienolla käsialallaan kirjoitettuja papereita, kulunut matto - kaikki, kaikki oli samanlaista kuin ennen, vain Ellen puuttui, Ellen ja hänen vieno sitruunan ja rautayrtin tuoksunsa ja vinojen silmiensä hellä katse. Scarlett tunsi tuskan vihlaisevan sydäntään, niinkuin syvän haavan turruttamat hermot olisivat alkaneet jälleen elää. Hän ei saanut antaa niiden herätä nyt. Hänellä oli edessään koko loput elämäänsä, jolloin niitä saisi kivistää, mutta ei nyt!”

“Vaikk' oot kallis, armahin, mulle, kunnia kuitenkin kalliimpi on.' Se on varsin sattuvasti sanottu, eikö olekin? Ainakin paremmin kuin mitä pystyisin itse keksimään tällä hetkellä. Sillä minä rakastan sinua, Scarlett, huolimatta siitä, mitä sanoin sinulle sinä iltana vain kuukausi sitten porraspylväikössä istuessamme."Rhettin venyttävä ääni oli hyväilevä, ja hänen kätensä, lämpimät, voimakkaat kädet, liukuivat ylös pitkin Scarlettin paljaita käsivarsia. "Rakastan sinua siksi, että olemme niin samanlaiset, luopioita molemmat ja itsekkäitä heittiöitä. Me emme kumpikaan välitä vähääkään siitä, vaikka koko maailma syöksyisi hornan kitaan, kunhan oma olomme vain on turvattu ja mukava.”

“In the dull twilight of the winter afternoon she came to the end of a long road which had begun the night Atlanta fell. She had set her feet upon that road a spoiled, selfish and untried girl, full of youth, warm of emotion, easily bewildered by life. Now, at the end of the road, there was nothing left of that girl. Hunger and hard labor, fear and constant strain, the terrors of war and the terrors of Reconstruction had taken away all warmth and youth and softness. About the core of her being, a shell of hardness had formed and, little by little, layer by layer, the shell had thickened during the endless months.”

“You look like you'd swallowed a ramrod and it isn't becoming"-Rhett Butler”

“Child, it's a very bad thing for a woman to face the worst that can happen to her, because after she's faced the worst she can't ever really fear anything again. ...Scarlett, always save something to fear— even as you save something to love...”

“It was better to know the worst than to wonder.”

“Vanity was stronger than love at sixteen and there was no room in her hot heart now for anything but hate.”

“I'd cut up my heart for you to wear if you wanted it.”

“Fo' Gawd, Miss Scarlett! We's got ter have a doctah. Ah- Ah- Miss Scarlett, Ah doan know nuthin' 'bout bringin' babies. -Prissy”

“Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.”

“Sometimes Frank sighed, thinking he had caught a tropic bird, all flame and jewel color, when a wren would have served him just as well. In fact, much better.”

“Now she had a fumbling knowledge that, had she ever understood Ashley, she would never have loved him; had she ever understood Rhett, she would never have lost him.”

“How closely women clutch the very chains that bind them!”

“I've always had a weakness for lost causes once they're really lost.”

“I wish I could care what you do or where you go but I can't... My dear, I don't give a damn.”

“The usual masculine dissillusionment is discovering that a woman has a brain”

“Men and women, they were beautiful and wild, all a little violent under their pleasant ways and only a little tamed.”

“But Rhett, you mustn't bring me anything else so expensive. It's awfully kind of you, but I really couldn't accept anything else.""Indeed? Well, I shall bring you presents so long as it pleases me and so long as I see things that will enhance your charms. I shall bring you dark-green watered silk for a frock to match the bonnet. And I warn you that I am not kind. I am tempting you with bonnets and bangles and leading you into a pit. Always remember I never do anything without reason and I never give anything without expecting something in return. I always get paid.”

“I'm tempting you with fine gifts until your girlish ideals are quite worn away and you are at my mercy.”

“I'm riding you with a slack rein, my pet, but don't forget that I'm riding with curb and spurs just the same.”

“Babies, babies, babies. Why did God make so many babies? But no, God didn't make them. Stupid people made them.”

“Now you are beginning to think for yourself instead of letting others think for you. That’s the beginning of wisdom.”

“It's a curse - this not wanting to look on naked realities. Until the war, life was never more real to me than a shadow show on a curtain. And I preferred it so. I do not like the outlines of things to be too sharp. I like them gently blurred, a little hazy.”

“Times never change when there's a need for honest work to be done.”

“He made her play and she had almost forgotten how. Life had been so serious and so bitter. He knew how to play and swept her along with him.”

“Yes, as Rhett had prophesied, marriage could be a lot of fun. Not only was it fun but she was learning many things. That was odd in itself, because Scarlett had thought life could teach her no more. Now she felt like a child, every day on the brink of a new discovery.”

“I want to make you faint. I will make you faint. You've had this coming to you for years. None of the fools you've known have kissed you like this - have they? Your precious Charles or Frank or your stupid Ashley... I said your stupid Ashley. Gentlemen all - what do they know about women? What do they know about you? I know you.”

“I wonder if anyone but me realizes what goes on in that head back of your deceptively sweet face.”

“It was not often that she was alone like this and she did not like it. When she was alone she had to think and, these days, thoughts were not so pleasant.”

“You should be kissed and by someone who knows how.”

“Come, Scarlett, you are no child, no schoolgirl to put me off with foolish excuses about decency and so forth. Say you'll marry me when I come back or, before God, I won't go. I'll stay around here and play a guitar under your window every night and sing at the top of my voice and compromise you, so you'll have to marry me to save your reputation.”

“Hush," he said. "I am asking you to marry me. Would you be convinced if I knelt down?”

“He would never be any different and now Scarlett realize the truth and accepted it without emotion—that until he died Gerald would always be waiting for Ellen, always listening for her. Her was in some dim borderline country where time was standing still and Ellen was always in the next room. The mainspring of his existence was taken away when she died and with it has gone his bounding assurance, his impudence and his restless vitality. Ellen was the audience before which the blustering drama of Gerald O'Hara had been played Now the curtain had been rung down forever, the footlights dimmed and the audience suddenly vanished, while the stunned old actor remained on his empty stage, waiting for his cues.”

“Svi su ratovi sveti - rece - za one koji se u njima bore. Kad ljudi koji pokrecu ratove ne bi od njih napravili svetinje ko bi bio toliko lud da se tuce? Ali ma kakve bile krilatice koje besjednici dobacuju ludacima koji se tuku, ma kako plemenite svrhe oni pripisivali ratovima, rat uvijek ima samo jedan razlog. A taj razlog je novac. Svi ratovi su stvarno bili tuce oko novca. Ali je malo ljudi koji to shvataju. Njihove usi su tako pune trestanja truba, dobosa i lijepih rijeci besjednika, koji se uostalom ne micu iz kuca.”

“How wonderful to know someone who was bad and dishonorable and a cheat and a liar, when all the world was filled with people who would not lie to save their souls and who would rather starve than do a dishonorable deed!”

“Sir,"she said,"you are no gentleman!"An apt observation,"he answered airily."And, you, Miss, are no lady.”

“It's not because I've -what is the phrase? -'swept you off your feet' by my -er- ardor?”

“And apologies, once postponed, become harder and harder to make, and finally impossible.”

“There’ll always be wars because men love wars. Women don’t, but men do..”