Of all the excellent teachers of college English whom I have known I have never discovered one who knew precisely what he was doing. Therein have lai…

- Mary Ellen Chase

Christmas is not a date. It is a state of mind.

- Mary Ellen Chase

The greatest danger in any argument is that real issues often clouded by superficial ones, that momentary passions may obscure permanent realities.

- Mary Ellen Chase

Suffering without understanding in this life is a heap worse than suffering when you have at least the grain of an idea what it's all for.

- Mary Ellen Chase

Manual labor to my father was not only good and decent for it's own sake but, as he was given to saying, it straightened out one's thoughts.

- Mary Ellen Chase

Whatever laudable qualities the English may possess in their selection, preparation, and consumption of food, elegance, originality, diversity, and i…

- Mary Ellen Chase

To lovers of the long and intricate history of language the disuse and final death of certain words is a matter of regret. Yet every age bears witnes…

- Mary Ellen Chase

It is quite possible to leave your home for a walk in the early morning air and return a different person - beguiled, enchanted.

- Mary Ellen Chase

Even one's yesterdays could not continue to stir and move in a man's mind unless there were a future for those yesterdays to make.

- Mary Ellen Chase