Great Throughts Treasury

"There ain't nothing from the outside that can lick any of us."

"There was madness and magic in the slim body he held, and the lips turned up to him were red and trembling and he kissed her."

"There was a glow of grim pride in her usually gentle face, approbation and a fierce joy in her smile that equaled the fiery tumult in Scarlett's own bosom."

"There?ll always be wars because men love wars. Women don?t, but men do."

"There?s just as much money to be made in the wreck of a civilization as in the up-building of one."

"They are kind of queer about music and books and scenery. Mother says it?s because their grandfather came from Virginia. She says Virginians set quite a store by such things."

"They were all beautiful with the blinding beauty that transfigures even the plainest woman when she is utterly protected and utterly loved and is giving back that love a thousand-fold."

"They knew that love snatched in the face of danger and death was doubly sweet for the strange excitement that went with it."

"These three ladies disliked and distrusted one another as heartily as the First Triumvirate of Rome, and their close alliance was probably for the same reason."

"This can't be real. It can't be. It's a nightmare. I'll wake up and find it's all been a nightmare. I mustn't think of it now, or I'll begin screaming in front of all these people. I can't think of it now. I'll think later, when I can stand it - when I can't see his eyes."

"Throughout the South for fifty years there would be bitter-eyed women who looked backward, to dead times, to dead men, evoking memories that hurt and were futile, bearing poverty with bitter pride because they had those memories. But Scarlett was never to look back. She gazed at the blackened stones and, for the last time, she saw Twelve Oaks rise before her eyes as it had once stood, rich and proud, symbol of a race and a way of living. Then she started down the road toward Tara, the heavy basket cutting into her flesh. Hunger gnawed at her empty stomach again and she said aloud: As God is my witness, as God is my witness, the Yankees aren?t going to lick me. I?m going to live through this, and when it?s over, I?m never going to be hungry again. No, nor any of my folks. If I have to steal or kill?as God is my witness, I?m never going to be hungry again."

"They were always like two people talking to each other in different languages. But she loved him so much, when he withdrew as he had now done, it was like the warm sun going down and leaving her in chilly twilight dews."

"To hear them talk one would have thought they had no legs, natural functions or knowledge of the wicked world."

"Times never change when there's a need for honest work to be done."

"To Scarlett, there was something breath-taking about Ellen O'Hara, a miracle that lived in the house with her and awed her and charmed and soothed her."

"Was Tara still standing? Or was Tara also gone with the wind which had swept through Georgia?"

"Tomorrow I'll think of some way ... after all, tomorrow is another day."

"Vanity was stronger than love at sixteen and there was no room in her hot heart now for anything but hate."

"We bow to the inevitable. We?re not wheat, we?re buckwheat! When a storm comes along it flattens ripe wheat because it?s dry and can?t bend with the wind. But ripe buckwheat?s got sap in it and it bends. And when the wind has passed, it springs up almost as straight and strong as before. We aren?t a stiff-necked tribe. We?re mighty limber when a hard wind?s blowing, because we know it pays to be limber. When trouble comes we bow to the inevitable without any mouthing, and we work and we smile and we bide our time. And we play along with lesser folks and we take what we can get from them. And when we?re strong enough, we kick the folks whose necks we?ve climbed over. That, my child, is the secret of the survival."

"Well fiddle dee dee!"

"Well--you know how the Wilkes are. They are kind of queer about music and books and scenery. Mother says it's because their grandfather came from Virginia. She says Virginians set quite a store by such things."

"Well, this is the reason. We bow to the inevitable. We're not wheat, we're buckwheat! When a storm comes along it flattens ripe wheat because it's dry and can't bend with the wind. But ripe buckwheat's got sap in it and it bends. And when the wind has passed, it springs up almost as straight and strong as before. We aren't a stiff-necked tribe. We're mighty limber when a hard wind's blowing, because we know it pays to be limber. When trouble comes we bow to the inevitable without any mouthing, and we work and we smile and we bide our time. And we play along with lesser folks and we take what we can get from them. And when we're strong enough, we kick the folks whose necks we've climbed over. That, my child, is the secret of the survival."

"Well, my dear, take heart. Someday, I will kiss you and you will like it. But not now, so I beg you not to be too impatient."

"What Melanie did was no more than all Southern girls were taught to do: to make those about them feel at ease and pleased with themselves. It was this happy feminine conspiracy which made Southern society so pleasant. Women knew that a land in which men were contented, uncontradicted, and safe in possession of unpunctured vanity was likely to be a very pleasant place for women to live. So from the cradle to the grave, women strove to make men pleased with themselves, and the satisfied men repaid lavishly with gallantry and adoration. In fact, men willingly gave the ladies everything in the world, except credit for having intelligence. Scarlett exercised the same charms as Melanie but with a studied artistry and consummate skill. The difference between the two girls lay in the fact that Melanie spoke kind and flattering words from a desire to make people happy, if only temporarily, and Scarlett never did it except to further her own aims."

"What is there to see in Europe? I'll bet those foreigners can't show us a thing we haven't got right here in Georgia."

"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."

"What most people don't seem to realize is that there is just as much money to be made out of the wreckage of a civilization as from the up-building of one."

"Why be an ostrich?"

"What will the South be like without all our fine boys? What would the South have been if they had lived?"

"Why, my goodness, honey. After looking at all those pictures of seraphic and perspirationless babes for so long in the privacy of a foxhole, what is a poor doughfoot going to do when he comes home and discovers that American women are, after all, biological and given, under stress, to shiny noses?"

"Why will people persist in reading strange meanings into the simplest of story? Is it not enough that a writer can entertain for a few hours with narrative without being suspected of 'significances' or symbolism or 'social trends'?"

"With enough courage, you can do without a reputation."

"Yankees are pretty much like southerners except with worse manners, of course, and terrible accents."

"Yes, I want money more than anything else in the world. Then you?ve made the only choice. But there?s a penalty attached, as there is to most things you want. It?s loneliness."

"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."

"Yes, life was very sweet and cozy with Scarlett - as long as she had her own way"

"Yankees in Georgia! How did they ever get in?"

"You can go to the Devil and not at your leisure. You can go now, for all I care."

"You are a child if you thought I didn?t know, for all your smothering yourself under that hot lap robe. Of course, I knew. Why else do you think I?ve been? He stopped suddenly and a silence fell between them. He picked up the reins and clucked to the horse."

"You have eternity in which to explain and only one night to be a martyr in the amphitheater Get out, darling, and let me see the lions eat you."

"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."

"You look like you'd swallowed a ramrod and it isn't becoming."

"You should be kissed and by someone who knows how."

"You're like the thief who isn't the least bit sorry he stole, but is terribly, terribly sorry he's going to jail."

"You're Ma's own blood son, but did she take on that time Tony Fontaine shot you in the leg? No, she just sent for old Doc Fontaine to dress it and asked the doctor what ailed Tony's aim. Said she guessed the licker was spoiling his marksmanship."

"You're so brutal to those who love you, Scarlett. You take their love and hold it over their heads like a whip."