“You cannot make yourself feel something you do not feel, but you can make yourself do right in spite of your feelings.”

— Pearl S. Buck, To My Daughters, With Love, 1967, "My Neighbor's Son"

About Pearl S. Buck

1892 – 1973

American novelist, Nobel laureate in Literature (1938), author of "The Good Earth".

“The really brave man simply acts brave—he doesn't have to talk about it.”

“A man is educated and turned out to work. But a woman is educated — and turned out to grass.”

“Men and women should own the world as a mutual possession.”

“Whate'er I may have been, or am, doth rest between Heaven and myself; I shall not choose a mortal to be my mediator.”

“Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.”

“Reciprocity is a matter of keeping the gift in motion through self-perpetuating cycles of giving and receiving.”

“I've found that there is always some beauty left — in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.”

“Democracy is, by the nature of it, a self-canceling business; and it gives in the long run a net result of zero.”

“I could give you no advice but this: to go into yourself and to explore the depths where your life wells forth.”