Gone With the Wind Quotes

In honor of my second reading of Gone With the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell (I read it for the first time about six years ago, and now I'm reading it again, to be followed up with Scarlett, the sequel) I offer up my two favorite quotes, so far. (The subject matter is rather typical). If you like it, I suggest reading the book. My copy is 1037 pages long and they are the most easily-read pages I have ever enjoyed.

The heavy hominy stuck in her throat like glue and never before had the mixture of parched corn and ground-up yams that passed for coffee been so repulsive. Without sugar or cream it was bitter as gall, for the sorghum used for "long-sweetening" did little to improve the taste. After one swallow she pushed her cup away. If for no other reason she hated Yankees because they kept her from having real coffee with sugar and thick cream in it.

Now that's real privation. That last part is the one I identify most with - it's so easy to harbor bitter feelings for anything that comes between me and my coffee.
This next part is very beautiful. I love when people talk about a love of the land, it's something hard to explain, sometimes, and Margaret Mitchell always puts her finger right on it, and keeps it there. She really understood the South. Since the sequel Scarlett was written by a different author, I hope she keeps that spirit intact.

When she looked at Tara she ecould understand, in part, why wars were fought. Rhett was wrong when he said men fought wars for money. No, they fought for swelling acres, softly furrowed by the plow, for pastures green with stubby cropped grass, for lazy yellow rivers and white houses that were cool amid magnolias. These were the only things worth fighting for, the red earth which was theirs and would be their sons', the red earth which would bear cotton for their sons and their sons' sons.

And from Gerald O'Hara, Scarlett O'Hara's father:

"Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything...for 'tis the only thing in this world that lasts, and don't you be forgetting it! 'Tis the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for - worth dying for."
"Oh, Pa," she [Scarlett] said disgustedly, "you talk like an Irishman!"
"Have I ever been ashamed of it? No, 'tis proud I am. And don't be forgetting that you are half Irish, Miss! And to anyone with a drop of Irish blood in them the land they live on is like their mother. . ."

Coffee Quotes

Here are some good quote I have run into, various places. I'm posting these because apparently I have damaged my sciatica exercising and subsequently am almost completely paralyzed on my right side from the hip down. Which means when I do manage to walk, I sound exactly like a larger version of my three-legged cat. Or at least that's what my father says, and apparently it's very amusing, although I don't see the humor in it.
So here I am, bored and in pain, and what better way to make it better than to think on coffee??

Coffee, according to the women of Denmark, is to the body what the Word of the Lord is to the soul. ~Isak Dinesen

Nancy Astor: "If I were your wife, I would put poison in your coffee.
Sir Winston Churchill: "And if I were your husband, I would drink it."
(Possibly the funniest exchange of wit EVER!)

The powers of a man's mind are directly proportioned to the quantity of coffee he drinks.
~Sir James Mackintosh

Schlendrian: You wicked child, you disobedient girl, oh! when will I get my way; give up coffee!Lieschen: Father, don't be so severe! If I can't drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat.
Aria
Lieschen: Mm! how sweet the coffee tastes, more delicious than a thousand kisses, mellower than muscatel wine. Coffee, coffee I must have,and if someone wishes to give me a treat, ah, then pour me out some coffee!
~J.S. Bach, "Coffee Cantata"

I would rather suffer with coffee than be senseless. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte (Ah, yes--how well I understand him, in my present situation!)

And the next quote, from my dear friend Mark Twain, which fills me with continuous doubt when I think about travelling to Europe (despite the reassurance of others who have been there since the illustrious Mr. Twain):

After a few months' acquaintance with European 'coffee' one's mind weakens, and his faith with it, and he begins to wonder if the rich beverage of home, with it's clotted layer of yellow cream on top of it, is not a mere dream after all, and a thing which never existed. ~ Mark Twain

Coffee

Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water. ~The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674

Ah, yes. The Women's Petition Against Coffee.Now, if you're like me, you're probably thinking: what the heck was wrong with those sharp-tongued crabby 17'th-century women? Now, what could have made them so spiteful and bitter?
I say, it wasn't the demoralizing effect of the plague, the destruction and havoc wreaked by the Great Fire of London, or their lack of legal rights--no! It take a different view.
It is common knowledge that women were not allowed in coffee-houses in those days. Well, they were clever women, and knew exactly what they were missing out on. What's a girl to do when deprived of something? Well, if it isn't possible to gain access to it yourself, the only other option is to see that nobody else gets any, either!

That being said, I will now share some recipes that are so wonderfully delicious they would have even melted the hearts of our scathing Londoner ancestors, the anonymous coffee-haters.