James Wood, comp. Dictionary of Quotations. 1899.
Mrs. Gatty
The days are too short even for love, how can there ever be time for quarrelling?
Waiting answers sometimes as well as working.
We take a great deal for granted in this world, and expect that everything, as a matter of course, ought to fit into our humours, wishes, and wants; it is often only when danger threatens that we awake to the discovery that the guiding reins are held by one whom we had well-nigh forgotten in our careless ease.
Where is the good of having a right to make both yourself and your neighbours miserable?… Mutual accommodation is the law of the world, or its inhabitants would all be wretched together.
Ye may darken over the blue heavens, ye vapoury masses in the sky. It matters not! Beyond the howling of that wrath, beyond the blackness of those clouds, there shines, unaltered and serene, the moon that shone in Paradise…. The moon that promises a paradise restored.
You cannot secure even enjoyment in stagnation.
You may have to wait a bit—some of you a shorter, some a longer time; but do wait, and everything will fit in and be perfect at last.
You must not suppose that everything goes right at first even with the best of us.