Elizabeth George Speare > Quotes

“What a pity every child couldn't learn to read under a willow tree...”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“After the keen still days of September, the October sun filled the world with mellow warmth...The maple tree in front of the doorstep burned like a gigantic red torch. The oaks along the roadway glowed yellow and bronze. The fields stretched like a carpet of jewels, emerald and topaz and garnet. Everywhere she walked the color shouted and sang around her...In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“All the way up the river she's been holding back somehow, waiting. Now you'll both have to wait. I'm not going to disappoint her, Kit. When I take you on board the Witch, it's going to be for keeps.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“She snatched at the dream that had comforted her for so long. It was faded and thin, like a letter too often read.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“There is no escape if love is not there," Hannah had said. Had Hannah known when she herself had not even suspected? It was not escape that she had dreamed about, it was love.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“There is no escape if love is not there”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“Daniel, he said. I would have you follow me.

Master!....I will fight for you to the end!.

My loyal friend, he said, I would ask something much harder than that. Would you love for me to the end?

...I don't understand, he said again, You tell people about the kingdom. Are we not to fight for it?

The kingdom is only bought at a great price, Jesus said. There was one who came just yesterday and wanted to follow me. He was very rich, and when I asked him to give up his wealth, he went away.

I will give you everything I have!

....Riches are not keeping you from the kingdom, he said. You must give up your hate.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Bronze Bow

“Tis a strange thing, that the only friends I have I found in the same way, lying flat in the meadows, crying as if their hearts would break.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“I have no word of yours to assure me that our brief friendship held for you the same significance it held for me, but I must go on believing so. Every hope of the future is meaningless unless I have faith that you and I will share it together.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, Calico Captive

“Who would guess," he teased, "that I'd ever see you on a rooftop with straw in your hair?"

Kit giggled. "Are you saying I've turned into a crow?"

"Not exactly." His eyes were intensely blue with merriment. "I can still see the green feathers if I look hard enough. But they've done their best to make you into a sparrow, haven't they?”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“From that first moment, in a way she could never explain, the Meadows claimed her and made her their own.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“People are afraid of things they don’t understand.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“The maple tree in front of the doorstep burned like a gigantic red torch. The oaks along the roadway glowed yellow and bronze. The fields stretched like a carpet of jewels, emerald and topaz and garnet. Everywhere she walked the color shouted and sang around her. The dried brown leaves crackled beneath her feet and gave off a delicious smoky fragrance. No one had ever told her about autumn in New England. The excitement of it beat in her blood. Every morning she woke with a new confidence and buoyancy she could not explain. In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“Hannah's magic cure for every ill," he teased. "Blueberry cake and a kitten.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“the demons that make a person afraid are the hardest to cast out.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Bronze Bow

“We can never know," Simon answered slowly. "God hides the future from man's eyes. We are forced to choose, not knowing. I have chosen Jesus.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Bronze Bow

“How right- how incredibly, utterly right- and how impossible!”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“The impression of strength came from an extraordinary vitality that seemed to pulse in the very air around him”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Bronze Bow

“There was something irresistible about popcorn.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“Have you noticed her name?"
Kit leaned sideways to see the letters painted jauntily on the transom. "The WITCH! How did you dare? Does Hannah know?"
"Oh, she's not named after Hannah. I hadn't gone ten miles down the river that day before I knew I'd left the real witch behind.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“If you ask me, it's all that schooling. It takes the fun out of life, being cooped up like that day after day...Books, now that's different. There's nothing like a book to keep you company of a long voyage.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“It is the hate that is the enemy. Not men. Hate does not die with killing. It only springs up a hundredfold. The only thing stronger than hate is love.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Bronze Bow

“When I take you on board the Witch, it's going to be for keeps.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“Outside the house, against a sheltered wall to the south, a single stalk of green thrust upwards, with slender rapierlike leaves and one huge scarlet blossom. Kit went down on her knees. “It looks just like the flowers at home,” she marveled. “I didn’t know you had such flowers here.” “It came all the way from Africa, from the Cape of Good Hope,” Hannah told her. “My friend brought the bulb to me, a little brown thing like an onion. I doubted it would grow here, but it just seemed determined to keep on trying and look what has happened.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“Everything in our lives," she said quietly, "leads up to everything else in our lives. So a moment in the present has a reference point, both in the past and in the future. I want you to know that you--as you are right now and as you ever wil be--are fully enough for this moment . . .”
― Elizabeth George Speare

“The two boys stood and looked at each other. There was no amusement and no scorn in Attean's eyes. How very strange, Matt thought. After all the brave deeds he had dreamed of doing to win this boy's respect, he had gained it at last by doing nothing, just by staying here and refusing to leave.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Sign of the Beaver

“A man's first loyalty is to the soil he stands on.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“If only I could be here alone, without Judith or anyone, she thought with longing. Someday I am going to come back to this place, when there is time just to stand still and look at it. How often she would come back she had no way of foreseeing, nor could she know that never, in the months to come, would the Meadows break the promise they held for her at this moment, a promise of peace and quietness and of comfort for a troubled heart.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“She rolled over and stretched, blinking up at the blue sky. The tips of the long grasses swished gently in the breeze. The hot sun pressed down on her so that she felt hot and empty. Slowly, the meadow began to fulfill its promise.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

“She saw now that she could not tell him about the books she had loved any more than she could make him see the palm trees swaying under a brilliant blue sky.”
― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond