Ethel Smyth Quotes

#1. If you take passionate interest in a subject, it is hard not to believe yourself specially equipped for it.

Ethel Smyth

#2. I feel I must fight for [my music], because I want women to turn their minds to big and difficult jobs; not just to go on hugging the shore, afraid to put out to sea.

Ethel Smyth

#3. Night after night I went to sleep murmuring, 'To-morrow I will be easy, strong, quick, supple, accurate, dashing and self-controlled all at once!' For not less than this is necessary in the Game of Life called Golf.

Ethel Smyth

#4. The majority of critical, and plenty of uncritical, readers find quotations a bore.

Ethel Smyth

#5. No one is more trustworthy than the repentant sinner who has been found out.

Ethel Smyth

#6. The charms of seclusion are seldom combined with the conveniences of civilization.

Ethel Smyth

#7. I can imagine nothing more tiresome than always to speak of people as if they were listening at the door.

Ethel Smyth

#8. I have often noticed that when Fate has a phenomenal run of ill luck in store for you, she begins by dropping a rare piece of good fortune into your lap, thereby enhancing the artistic effect of the sequel.

Ethel Smyth

#9. When I came to know Greek art I instantly understood that excess and perfection are enemies; yet on the other hand this world and the millions of worlds around us live by fire ... !

Ethel Smyth

#10. If a young dog strays up the aisle during church no one says anything, no one does anything, but, none the less, he soon becomes aware that something is wrong. Even so, as the distance between myself and the hearthrug diminished, did I become aware that something was very wrong indeed.

Ethel Smyth

#11. Crawling about the floor like half-dead November flies is one thing, and dancing reels another.

Ethel Smyth

#12. Acceptance is an art that must be mastered if we want to keep our friends for the span of life that remains to us, and presently step off the stage with our self-respect intact.

Ethel Smyth

#13. [On golf:] ... though aware I could never be more than a humble potterer, it was impossible to repress the wild upsurgings of hope known to all middle-aged beginners ...

Ethel Smyth