Margaret Mitchell quotes:

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 I'd rather remember it as it was at its best than mend it and see the broken places as long as I lived.

I don't see how it could possibly be made into a movie unless the entire book was scrapped and Shirley Temple cast as 'Bonnie,' Mae West as 'Belle,' and Stepin Fetchit as 'Uncle Peter.'

I can't make you understand because you don't know the meaning of fear. You have the heart of a lion and an utter lack of imagination and I envy you both of those qualities. You'll never mind facing realities and you'll never want to escape from them as I do.

After all, tomorrow is another day.

Southerners can never resist a losing cause.

Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.

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

Did you ever hear the Oriental proverb, "The dogs bark but the caravan passes on"? Let them bark, Scarlett. I fear nothing will stop your caravan.

The world can forgive practically anything except people who mind their own business.

Death, taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them.

Fighting is like champagne. It goes to the heads of cowards as quickly as of heroes. Any fool can be brave on a battlefield when it's be brave or else be killed.

Once, when she was six years old, she had fallen from a tree, flat on her stomach. She could still recall that sickening interval before breath came back into her body. Now, as she looked at him, she felt the same way she had felt then, breathless, stunned, nauseated.

She saw in his eyes defeat of her wild dreams, her mad desires.

I'm tired of saying, "How wonderful you are!" to fool men who haven't got one-half the sense I've got, and I'm tired of pretending I don't know anything, so men can tell me things and feel important while they're doing it.

I told you once before that there were two times for making big money, one in the up-building of a country and the other in its destruction. Slow money on the up-building, fast money in the crack-up. Remember my words. Perhaps they may be of use to you some day. (Rhett Butler)

Scarlett, when you are forty-five, perhaps you will know what I'm talking about and then perhaps you, too, will be tired of imitation gentry and shoddy manners and cheap emotions. But I doubt it. I think you'll always be more attracted by glister than by gold."

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

Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was.

His voice stopped and they looked for a long quiet moment into each other's eyes and between them lay the sunny lost youth that they had so unthinkingly shared.

Everybody's mainspring is different. And I want to say this - folks whose mainsprings are busted are better dead.

I want peace. I want to see if somewhere there isn't something left in life of charm and grace.

War and marriage and childbirth had passed over her without touching any deep chord within her and she was unchanged.

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.

The green eyes in the carefully sweet face were turbulent, willful, lusty with life, distinctly at variance with her decorous demeanor. Her manners had been imposed upon her ... her eyes were her own.

All you have done is to be different from other women and you have made a little success of it. This is unforgivable sin in any society. The mere fact that you have succeed to run the mill is an insult to everyman who hasn't succeed.

I'm tired of saying "How wonderful you are!" to fool men, who haven't got one half sense I've got.

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

No, my dear, I'm not in love with you, no more than you are with me, and if I were, you would be the last person I'd ever tell. God help the man who ever really loves you. You'd break his heart, my darling, cruel, destructive little cat who is so careless and confident she doesn't even trouble to sheathe her claws."

But the small cloud which appeared in the northwest four months ago had blown up into a mighty storm and then into a screaming tornado,sweeping away her world, whirling her out of her sheltered life,and dropping her down in the midst of this still,haunted desolation."

My dear, I don't give a damn.

He had never known such gallantry as the gallantry of Scarlett O'Hara going forth to conquer the world in her mother's velvet curtains and the tail feathers of a rooster.

I'll think of it tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I'll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.

Somewhere, on the long road that wound through those four years, the girl with her sachet & dancing slippers had slipped away & there was left a woman with sharp green eyes, who counted pennies & turned her hands to many menial tasks, a woman to whom nothing was left from the wreckage except the indestructible red earth on which she stood.

It's a curse - this not wanting to look on naked realities. Until the war, life was never more real to me than a shadow show on a curtain. And I preferred it so. I do not like the outlines of things to be too sharp. I like them gently blurred, a little hazy.

If I said I was madly in love with you you'd know I was lying.

You should be kissed and by someone who knows how.

I've always had a weakness for lost causes once they're really lost.

The Old Guard dies but it never surrenders.

All really nice girls wonder when men don't try to kiss them. They know they shouldn't want them to and they know they must act insulted if they do, but just the same, they wish the men would try.

The south produced statesmen and soldiers, planters and doctors and lawyers and poets, but certainly no engineers and mechanics. Let Yankees adopt such low callings.

Take my handkerchief, Scarlett. Never, at any crisis of your life, have I known you to have a handkerchief.

Dear Scarlett! You aren't helpless. Anyone as selfish and determined as you are is never helpless. God help the Yankees if they should get you." -Rhett Butler

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

Madam, you flatter yourself. I do not want to marry you or anyone else. I am not a marrying man. - Rhett Butler

Never pass up new experiences [Scarlett], They enrich the mind." - Rhett Butler

I'd cut up my heart for you to wear if you wanted it.

I want peace. I want to see if somewhere there isn't something left in life of charm and grace

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.

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

I'll think of it all tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. Tomorrow, I'll think of someway to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day. - Scarlett

I won't need you to rescue meM. I can take care of myself, thank you. - Scarlett O'Hara.

Scarlett, I'm a bad influence on you and if you have any sense you will send me packing - if you can. I'm very hard to get rid of. But I'm bad for you.

I'll think about that tomorrow. Scarlett O'Hara

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.'Why-why-she's like me! She understands how I feel'!

Fo' Gawd, Miss Scarlett! We's got ter have a doctah. Ah- Ah- Miss Scarlett, Ah doan know nuthin' 'bout bringin' babies. -Prissy

So I have. Let me hold the baby, Scarlett. Oh, I know how to hold babies. I have many strange accomplishments. Well, he certainly looks like Frank. All except the whiskers, but give him time.I hope not. It's a girl.

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

Never pass up new experiences [Scarlett], They enrich the mind. - Rhett Butler

Scarlett permitted the embrace - because in the dark smoke- fill the kitchen, there had been born a greater respect for her sister in law, a closer feeling of comradeship.

Pride & honor & truth & virtue & kindliness, he enumerated silkilyYou are right, Scarlett. They aren't 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.

Dear Scarlett! You aren't helpless. Anyone as selfish and determined as you are is never helpless. God help the Yankees if they should get you. -Rhett Butler

A new baby! Why, Scarlett, this is a surprise! he laughed, leaning down to push the blanket away from Ella Lorena's small ugly face. - Rhett Butler

Scarlett, when you are forty-five, perhaps you will know what I'm talking about and then perhaps you, too, will be tired of imitation gentry and shoddy manners and cheap emotions. But I doubt it. I think you'll always be more attracted by glister than by gold.

Did you ever hear the Oriental proverb, The dogs bark but the caravan passes on? Let them bark, Scarlett. I fear nothing will stop your caravan.

With enough courage, you can do without a reputation.

Hardships make or break people.

Fighting is like champagne. It goes to the heads of cowards as quickly as of heroes.

Ashley watched her go and saw her square her small shoulders as she went. And that gesture went to his heart, more than any words she had spoken.

Sir,"she said,"you are no gentleman!"An apt observation,"he answered airily."And, you, Miss, are no lady.

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 upbuilding of one.

Scarlett kicked the coverlet in impotent rage, trying to think of something bad enough to say.'God's nightgown!' she cried at last, and felt somewhat relieved.

Burdens are for shoulders strong enough to carry them. -Scarlett O'Hara

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

It was better to know the worst than to wonder.

Scarlett O'Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were.

But the small cloud which appeared in the northwest four months ago had blown up into a mighty storm and then into a screaming tornado,sweeping away her world, whirling her out of her sheltered life,and dropping her down in the midst of this still,haunted desolation.

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

No matter what rallying cries the orators give to the idiots who fight, no matter what noble purposes they assign to wars, there is never but one reason for a war. And that is money. All wars are in reality money squabbles.

Practically everybody is suing everybody else these days.

Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything, for 'Tis the only thing in this world that lasts, 'Tis the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for - worth dying for.

I want to make you faint. I will make you faint. You've had this coming to you for years. None of the fools you've known have kissed you like this - have they? Your precious Charles or Frank or your stupid Ashley... I said your stupid Ashley. Gentlemen all - what do they know about women? What do they know about you? I know you.

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

Until you have lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.

. . . She knew only that if she did or said thus-and-so, men would unerringly respond with the complimentary thus-and-so. It was like a mathematical formula and no more difficult, for mathematics was the one subject that had come easy to Scarlett in her schooldays.

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

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

A new baby! Why, Scarlett, this is a surprise!" he laughed, leaning down to push the blanket away from Ella Lorena's small ugly face." - Rhett Butler

A pain slashed through her heart as savagely as a wild animal's fangs.

All she wanted was a breathing space in which to hurt.

All wars are sacred to those who have to fight them. If the people who started wars didn't make them sacred, who would be foolish enough to fight?

And apologies, once postponed, become harder and harder to make, and finally impossible.

And if we folks have a motto, it's this: 'Don't holler - smile and bide your time.' We've survived a passel of things that way, smiling and biding our time, and we've gotten to be experts at surviving.

Anyone as selfish and determined as you are is never helpless.

As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again.

Babies, babies, babies. Why did God make so many babies? But no, God didn't make them. Stupid people made them.

Brilliance is one part talent, two parts wisdom and three parts passion.

Burdens are for shoulders strong enough to carry them.

But Rhett, you mustn't bring me anything else so expensive. It's awfully kind of you, but I really couldn't accept anything else." "Indeed? Well, I shall bring you presents so long as it pleases me and so long as I see things that will enhance your charms. I shall bring you dark-green watered silk for a frock to match the bonnet. And I warn you that I am not kind. I am tempting you with bonnets and bangles and leading you into a pit. Always remember I never do anything without reason and I never give anything without expecting something in return. I always get paid.

But she knew that no matter what beauty lay behind, it must remain there. No one could go forward with a load of aching memories.

Crackers are short on sparkle.

Do I understand, sir, that you mean the Cause for which our heroes have died is not sacred?' If you were run over by a railroad train your death wouldn't sanctify the railroad company, would it?' asked Rhett and his voice sounded as if he were humbly seeking information.

Every problem has two handles. You can grab it by the handle of fear or the handle of hope.

Everywhere, women gathered in knots, huddled in groups on front porches, on sidewalks, even in the middle of the streets, telling each other that no news is good news, trying to comfort each other, trying to present a brave appearance.

God help the man who ever really loves you.

He made her play and she had almost forgotten how. Life had been so serious and so bitter. He knew how to play and swept her along with him.

Her lips on his could tell him better than all her stumbling words.

How closely women clutch the very chains that bind them!

How wonderful to know someone who was bad and dishonorable and a cheat and a liar, when all the world was filled with people who would not lie to save their souls and who would rather starve than do a dishonorable deed!

Hunger gnawed at her empty stomach again and she said aloud: 'As God is my witness, and 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.

Hush," he said. "I am asking you to marry me. Would you be convinced if I knelt down?

I bare my soul and you are suspicious! No, Scarlett, this is a bona fide honorable declaration. I admit that it's not in the best of taste, coming at this time, but I have a very good excuse for my lack of breeding. I'm going away tomorrow for a long time and I fear that if I wait till I return you'll have married some one else with a little money. So I thought, why not me and my money? Really, Scarlett, I can't go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands.

I can't go all my life waiting to catch you between husbands.

I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy. I'll think about that tomorrow.

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

I have a passionate desire for personal privacy. I want to stand before the world, for good or bad, on the book I wrote, not on what I say in letters to friends, not on my husband and my home life, the way I dress, my likes and dislikes, et cetera. My book belongs to anyone who has the price, but nothing of me belongs to the public.

I loved something I made up