Quotes by Margaret Mitchell

Yes, as Rhett had prophesied, marriage could be a lot of fun. Not only was it fun but she was learning many things. That was odd in itself, because Scarlett had thought life could teach her no more. Now she felt like a child, every day on the brink of a new discovery.

Like most girls, her imagination carried her just as far as the altar and no further.

With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.

The liar was the hottest to defend his veracity, the coward his courage, the ill-bred his gentlemanliness, and the cad his honor

Scarletts mind went back through the years to the still hot noon at Tara when grey smoke curled above a blue-clad body and Melanie stood at the top of the stairs with Charles sabre in her hand. Scarlett remembered that she had thought at the time: How silly! Melly couldnt even heft that sword! But now she knew that had the necessity arisen, Melanie would have charged down those stairs and killed the Yankee - or been killed herself.

She was darkness and he was darkness and there had never been anything before this time, only darkness and his lips upon her. She tried to speak and his mouth was over hers again. Suddenly she had a wild thrill such as she had never known; joy, fear, madness, excitement, surrender to arms that were too strong, lips too bruising, fate that moved too fast.

What’s broken is broken—and I’d rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I live…I’m too old to believe in such sentimentalities as clean slates and starting all over.

A startling thought this, that a woman could handle businessmatters as well as or better than a man, a revolutionary thought toScarlett who had been reared in the tradition that men wereomniscient and women none too bright. Of course, she haddiscovered that this was not altogether true but the pleasantfiction still stuck in her mind. Never before had she put thisremarkable idea into words. She sat quite still, with the heavybook across her lap, her mouth a little open with surprise,thinking that during the lean months at Tara she had done a manswork and done it well. She had been brought up to believe that awoman alone could accomplish nothing, yet she had managed theplantation without men to help her until Will came. Why, why, hermind stuttered, I believe women could manage everything in theworld without mens help--except having babies, and God knows, nowoman in her right mind would have babies if she could help it.

That is the one unforgivable sin in any society. Be different and be damned!

As God is my witness, as God is my witness they’re not going to lick me. I’m going to live through this and when it’s all over, I’ll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again. - Scarlett

I was never one to patiently pick up broken fragments and glue them together again and tell myself that the mended whole was as good as new. What is broken is broken - and Id rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived.

I do not write with ease, nor am I ever pleased with anything I write. And so I rewrite.

As God is my witness, Ill never be hungry again.

You must be more gentle, dear, more sedate, Ellen told her daughter. You must not interrupt gentlemen when they are speaking, even if you do think you know more about matters than they do. Gentlemen do not like forward girls.

[T]he merciful adjustment which nature makes when what cannot be cured must be endured.

Suddenly she hated them all because they were different from her, because they carried their losses with an air that she could never attain, would never wish to attain. She hated them, these smiling, light-footed strangers, these proud fools who took pride in something they had lost, seeming to be proud that they had lost it.

She had never understood either of the men she had loved and so she had lost them both. Now, she had a fumbling knowledge that, had she ever understood Ashley, she would never have loved him; had she ever understood Rhett, she would never have lost him.

This is what happens when you look back to happiness, this pain, this heart-break, this discontent

But, Scarlett, did it ever occur to you that even the most deathless love could wear out?

Pride & honor & truth & virtue & kindliness, he enumerated silkily. You are right, Scarlett. They arent important when a boat is sinking. But look around you at your friends. Either they are bringing their boats ashore safely with cargoes intact or they are content to go down with all flags flying.