If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms from toadstools.

Meaning of the quote

It can be really hard to know if the love you feel is the real, lasting kind or just a temporary feeling. It's like trying to tell a safe, edible mushroom from a poisonous toadstool. You need to be very careful and pay close attention to be sure you're not mistaking one for the other.

About Katherine Mansfield

Katherine Mansfield was a renowned New Zealand writer and critic who played a significant role in the modernist movement. Her works, published in 25 languages, are celebrated worldwide. Born in Wellington, Mansfield had a rich literary career in England, where she associated with notable figures like D.H. Lawrence and Virginia Woolf.

More about the author

More quotes from Katherine Mansfield

I’m a writer first and a woman after.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

Would you not like to try all sorts of lives – one is so very small – but that is the satisfaction of writing – one can impersonate so many people.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

This is not a letter but my arms around you for a brief moment.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

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

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

Looking back, I imagine I was always writing. Twaddle it was too. But better far write twaddle or anything, anything, than nothing at all.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

Once we have learned to read, meaning of words can somehow register without consciousness.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

When we can begin to take our failures seriously, it means we are ceasing to be afraid of them. It is of immense importance to learn to laugh at ourselves.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

I want to be all that I am capable of becoming.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

Risk! Risk anything! Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

Some couples go over their budgets very carefully every month. Others just go over them.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

Life never becomes a habit to me. It’s always a marvel.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

Could we change our attitude, we should not only see life differently, but life itself would come to be different.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

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

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

What do you want most to do? That’s what I have to keep asking myself, in the face of difficulties.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

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

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms from toadstools.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

Whenever I prepare for a journey I prepare as though for death. Should I never return, all is in order.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

I love the rain. I want the feeling of it on my face.

Katherine Mansfield

New Zealand author (1888-1923)

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

New Zealand author (1888-1923)