574 Quotes by Doris Lessing

I read this over today, for the first time since I wrote it. It's full of nostalgia, every word loaded with it, although at the time I wrote it I thought I was being 'objective.' Nostalgia for what? I don't know. Because I'd rather die than have to live through any of that again. And the 'Anna' of that time is like an enemy, or like an old friend one has known too well and doesn't want to see.

She wanted to be acknowledged, her predicament given its value.

I’m not going to be like my mother. You’re maniacs. You’re mad."“Yes,” said Kate. “I know it. And so you won’t be. The best of luck to you. And what are you going to be instead?

Younger woman says, “I’m not going to be like my mother. You’re maniacs. You’re mad.”“Yes,” [older woman responds] “I know it. And so you won’t be. The best of luck to you. And what are you going to be instead?

I’m not going to be like my mother. You’re maniacs. You’re mad.“Yes,” said Kate. “I know it. And so you won’t be. The best of luck to you. And what are you going to be instead?

There is only one real sin, and that is to persuade oneself that the second-best is anything but the second-best

There was a certain struggling fury that went with being jobless, and persevering, and being turned down, that was different from simply being jobless.

هناك غضبٌ معيّن يرافق العاطلين ، وَ المثابرة ، وَ الإحباط ، كان هذا يختلف لمجرد أن يكون الإنسان عاطلا

Listen Anna, if we don’t believe the things we put on our agendas will come true for us, then there’s no hope for us. We’re going to be saved by what we seriously put on our agendas.