Elizabeth Gaskell Quotes

To be sure a stepmother to a girl is a different thing to a second wife to a man!

But the cloud never comes in that quarter of the horizon from which we watch for it.

He had not an ounce of superfluous flesh on his bones, and leanness goes a great way towards gentility.

A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.

I look at [books] as a child looks at cakes - with glittering eyes and a watering mouth, imagining the pleasure that awaits him.

There is nothing like wounded affection for giving poignancy to anger.

I dare not hope. I never was fainthearted before; but I cannot believe such a creature cares for me.

Those who are happy and successful themselves are too apt to make light of the misfortunes of others.

Anticipation was the soul of enjoyment.

But the future must be met, however stern and iron it be.

One may be clogged with honey and unable to rise and fly.

I would far rather have two or three lilies of the valley gathered for me by a person I like, than the most expensive bouquet that could be bought!

Margaret was not a ready lover, but where she loved she loved passionately, and with no small degree of jealousy.

He shrank from hearing Margaret's very name mentioned; he, while he blamed her--while he was jealous of her--while he renounced her--he loved her sorely, in spite of himself.

I'll not listen to reason... reason always means what someone else has got to say.

Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.

A little credulity helps one on through life very smoothly.

I know you despise me; allow me to say, it is because you don't understand me.

But the trees were gorgeous in their autumnal leafiness - the warm odours of flowers and herb came sweet upon the sense.

How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly!

I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it wasn't me.

It is bad to believe you in error. It would be infinitely worse to have known you a hypocrite.

And so she shuddered away from the threat of his enduring love. What did he mean? Had she not the power to daunt him? She would see. It was more daring than became a man to threaten her.

Take care. -If you do not speak- I shall claim you as my own in some presumptuous way. -Send me away at once, if I must go; -Margaret!-

That kind of patriotism which consists in hating all other nations.

Oh, Mr. Thornton, I am not good enough!' 'Not good enough! Don't mock my own deep feeling of unworthiness.

Really it is very wholesome exercise, this trying to make one's words represent one's thoughts, instead of merely looking to their effect on others.

What other people may think of the rightness or wrongness is nothing in comparison to my own deep knowledge, my innate conviction that it was wrong.

Every mile was redolent of associations, which she would not have missed for the world, but each of which made her cry upon 'the days that are no more' with ineffable longing.

Margaret the Churchwoman, her father the Dissenter, Higgins the Infidel, knelt down together. It did them no harm.

He shook hands with Margaret. He knew it was the first time their hands had met, though she was perfectly unconscious of the fact.

. . . it seemed to me that where others had prayed before to their God, in their joy or in their agony, was of itself a sacred place.

Oh, I can't describe my home. It is home, and I can't put its charm into words

Don't think to come over me with th' old tale, that the rich know nothing of the trials of the poor; I say, if they don't know, they ought to know.

Waiting is far more difficult than doing.

Of all faults the one she most despised in others was the want of bravery; the meanness of heart which leads to untruth.

As she realized what might have been, she grew to be thankful for what was.

Mr. Thorton love Margaret! Why, Margraret would never think of him, I'm sure! Such a thing has never entered her head." "Entering her heart would do.

The French girls would tell you, to believe that you were pretty would make you so.

I wanted to see the place where Margaret grew to what she is, even at the worst time of all, when I had no hope of ever calling her mine.

She freshens me up above a bit. Who'd ha thought that face - as bright and as strong as the angel I dream of - could have known the sorrow she speaks on? I wonder how she'll sin. All on us must sing.

I dare say there's many a woman makes as sad a mistake as I have done, and only finds it out too late.

No one loves me, - no one cares for me, but you, mother.

Out of the way! We are in the throes of an exceptional emergency! This is no occassion for sport- there is lace at stake!" (Ms. Pole)

Look back. Look back at me." Richard Armitage spoke this line in the movie North and South as he watched Miss Hale drive away in a carriage.

Similarity of opinion is not always—I think not often—needed for fullness and perfection of love.

I could wish there were a God, if it were only to ask him to bless thee.

How different men were to women!

I am the mother that bore you, and your sorrow is my agony; and if you don't hate her, i do' Then, mother, you make me love her more. She is unjustly treated by you, and I must make the balance even.

She never called her son by any name but John; 'love' and 'dear', and such like terms, were reserved for Fanny.