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Isn't that something-to know your own soul by hearsay, instead of its own tidings? Why should I let a preacher tell me if I had one or not? If I could believe I hada soul, all by myself, then I could listen to its tidings all by myself.

Mary Ann Shaffer

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Mary Ann Shaffer
Age: 73 †
Born: 1934
Born: December 13
Died: 2008
Died: February 16
Librarian
Novelist
Writer
Martinsburg
West Virginia
Preacher
Listen
Instead
Tell
Soul
Something
Believe
Hearsay
Tidings

More quotes by Mary Ann Shaffer

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one year as his wife, and id have become one of those abject, quaking women who look at their husbands when someone asks them a question. I've always despised that type, but I see how it happens now
Mary Ann Shaffer
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We read books, talked books, argued over books and became dearer and dearer to one another.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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Miss X has always been a ditherer -- she was a ten month baby and has not improved in any material way since then.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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Men are more interesting in books than they are in real life.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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I am to cover the philosophical side of the debate and so far my only thought is that reading keeps you from going gaga.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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But you want to know about the influence of books on my life, and as I've said, there was only one. Seneca. . .Maybe that sounds dull, but the letters aren't - they're witty. I think you learn more if you're laughing at the same time.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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Will Thisbee gave me The Beginner's Cook-Book for Girl Guides. It was just the thing the writer assumes you know nothing about cookery and writes useful hints - When adding eggs, break the shells first.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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Perhaps there is some secret sort of homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers. How delightful if that were true.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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Women like poetry. A soft word in their ears and they melt - a grease spot on the grass.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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My worries travel around in my head on their well worn path
Mary Ann Shaffer
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Those times, I tried to think of something happy, something I'd liked - but not something I loved, for that made it worse.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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Your questions regarding that gentleman are very delicate, very subtle, very much like being smacked in the head with a mallet...it's a tuba among the flutes.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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I sometimes think I prefer suitors in books rather than right in front of me. How awful, backward, cowardly, and mentally warped that will be if it turns out to be true.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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I hope, too, that my book will illuminate my belief that love of art - be it poetry, storytelling, painting, sculpture, or music - enables people to transcend any barrier man has yet devised.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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Light griefs are loquacious, but the great are dumb.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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I don't want to be married just to be married. I can't think of anything lonelier than spending the rest of my life with someone I can't talk to, or worse, someone I can't be silent with.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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In a good mood I call my hair Chestnut with Gold Glints. In a bad mood, I call it mousy brown
Mary Ann Shaffer
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The first rule of snooping is to come at it sideways.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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When I got up this morning the sea was full of sun pennies - and now it all seems to be covered in lemon scrim. Writers ought to live far inland or next to the city dump, if they are ever to get any work one. Or perhaps they need to be stronger-minded than I am.
Mary Ann Shaffer
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This obsession with dignity can ruin your life if you let it.
Mary Ann Shaffer