It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.

— Katherine Mansfield

It's a terrible thing to be alone - yes it is - it is - but don't lower your mask until you have another mask prepared beneath - as terrible as you like - but a mask.

— Katherine Mansfield

I want by understanding myself to understand others. I want to be all that I am capable of becoming.

— Katherine Mansfield

Make it a rule of life never to regret and never look back. Regret is an appalling waste of energy you can't build on if it's good only for wallowing in.

— Katherine Mansfield

… Oh dear, I sometimes think…whatever would I do if anything happened… But thinking's no good, is it, madam? Thinking won't help. When I find myself doing that, I say to myself, "come along, Ellen! Stop it this moment, my girl! Stop that silly thinking…!

— Katherine Mansfield

Query: Why am I so bitter against Life? And why do I see her as a rag-picker on the American cinema, shuffling along wrapped in a filthy shawl with her old claws crooked over a stick? Answer: The direct result of the American cinema acting upon a weak mind.

— Katherine Mansfield

Regret is an appalling waste of energy you can't build on if it is good only for wallowing.

— Katherine Mansfield

Risk anything! Care no more for the opinion of others ... Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth."(Journal entry, 14 October 1922)

— Katherine Mansfield

Risk! Risk anything! ... Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.

— Katherine Mansfield

Saw the sun rise. A lovely apricot sky with flames in it and then solemn pink. Heavens, how beautiful... I feel so full of love to-day after having seen the sun rise.

— Katherine Mansfield