Elizabeth Gaskell Quotes

He spoke as if the answer were a matter of indifference to him. But it was not so. For all his pain,...

What other people may think of the rightness or wrongness is nothing in comparison to my own deep kn...

Nature felt no change, and was ever young.

He shrank from hearing Margaret's very name mentioned; he, while he blamed her – while he was jealou...

And so she shuddered away from the threat of his enduring love. What did he mean? Had she not the po...

Her mouth was wide; no rosebud that could only open just enough to let out a 'yes' and 'no', and 'an...

Oh! that look of love!" continued he, between his teeth, as he bolted himself into his own private r...

On some such night as this she remembered promising to herself to live as brave and noble a life as ...

It seemed as though he gave way all at once; he was so languid that he could not control his thought...

She would fain have caught at the skirts of that departing time, and prayed it to return, and give h...

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

He could remember all about it now; the pitiful figure he must have cut; the absurd way in which he ...

It might, or it might not. There's two opinons to go settling that point. But suppose it was truth d...

If all the world spoke, acted, or kept silence with intent to deceive, --if dearest interests were a...

If Mr. Thornton was a fool in the morning, as he assured himself at least twenty times he was, he di...

Loyalty and obedience to wisdom and justice are fine; but it is still finer to defy arbitrary power,...

Was it a doubt - a fear - a wandering uncertainty seeking rest, but finding none - so tear-blinded w...

I value my ownindependence so highly that I can fancy no degradation greater than thatof having anot...

Take care. If you do not speak – I shall claim you as my own in some strange presumptuous way. Send ...

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

I daresay it seems foolish; perhaps all our earthly trials will appear foolish to us after a while; ...

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

But I got through the review, for all their Latin and French; I did, and if you doubt me, you just l...

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

There was a filmy veil of soft dull mist obscuring, but not hiding, all objects, giving them a lilac...

Mr. Thorton love Margaret! Why, Margraret would never think of him, I'm sure! Such a thing has never...

Well, He had known what love was-a sharp pang, a fierce experience, in the midst of whose flames he ...

I am the mother that bore you, and your sorrow is my agony; and if you don't hate her, i do'Then, mo...

God has made us so that we must be mutually dependent. We may ignore our own dependence, or refuse t...

I believe that this suffering, which Miss Hale says is impressed on the countenances of the people o...

North and South has both met and made kind o' friends in this big smoky place.

She freshens me up above a bit. Who'd ha thought that face - as bright and as strong as the angel I ...

He were found drowned. He were coming home very hopeless o' aught on earth. He thought God could na ...

She disliked him more for having mastered her inner will. How dared he say that he would love her st...

- Ay! Thornton o' Marlborough Mill, as we call him.- He is one of the masters you are striving with,...

The more it rains and blows, the more certain we are to have him.

A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when ...

But she had learnt, in those solemn hours of thought, that she herself must one day answer for her o...

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

Indeed! I am truly glad to hear it. I always always fond of Osborne; and, do you know, I never reall...

I would far rather have two or three lilies of the valley gathered for me by a person I like, than t...

Love me as I am, sweet one, for I shall never be better.

Thus, you see, he arrived at the same end, via supposed duty, that he was previously pledged to via ...

No, its the poor I tell you, and the poor only, as does such things for the poor. Don't think to com...

If she lives, she shall be my wedded wife. If she dies--mother, I can't speak of what I shall feel i...

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

My father once made us," she began, "keep a diary, in two columns; on one side we were to put down i...

In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses above a cert...

Many a one has been comforted in their sorrow by seeing a good dish come upon the table.

Your husband this morning! Mine tonight! What do you take him for?''A man' smiled Cynthia. 'And ther...

She continued her own studies, principally attending to German, and to Literature; and every Sunday ...

All the morning since he got up he had been trying to fight through his duties—leaning against a hop...

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

Her thoughts are full of other things just now; and people have such different ways of showing feeli...

The traditions of . . . bygone times, even to the smallest social particular, enable one to understa...

…everything may be done in a right way or a wrong; the right way is to do it as well as we can, as i...

By degrees they spoke of education , and the book-learning that forms one part of it; and the result...

What do you expect—not indifference or ingratitude?’ (-Miss Benson) ‘It is better not to expect or c...

...somehow, the very errors and faults of one individual served to call out the higher excellencies ...

Ask , and it shall be given until you. That is no vain or untried promise, Ruth!

With a bound, the sun of a molten fiery red cam above the horizon, and immediately thousands of litt...

You know the proverb, Mr. Hale, 'set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to the devil' - well, som...

She then thought the land enchanted into everlasting brightness and happiness; she fancied, then, th...

The temptation is too strong for me. Oh, Lord! where is Thy peace that I believed in, in my childhoo...

Jemima was not pretty, the flatness and shortness of her face made her almost plain; yet most people...

…I have never seen mountains before, and they fill me and oppress me so much that I could not sleep;...

He swallowed down the dry choking sobs which had been heaving up from his heart hitherto ...

I only mean, Bessy, there's good and bad in everything in this world; and as you felt the bad up her...

I wanted to see the place where Margaret grew to what she is, even at the worst time of all, when I ...

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

Margaret liked this smile; it was the first thing she had admired in this new friend of her father's...

One word more. You look as if you thought it tainted you to beloved by me. You cannot avoid it. Nay,...

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

But suppose it was truth double strong, it were no truth to me if I couldna take it in. I daresay th...

Now, the error which many parents commit in the treatment of the individual at this time(adolescense...

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

The distant sea, lapping the sandy shore with measured sound; the nearer cries of the donkey-boys; t...

I know you despise me; allow me to say, it is because you do not understand me.

It was her brother,' said Mr. Thornton to himself. 'I am glad.I may never see her again; but it is c...

He may care for her, though she really has been almost rude to him at times. But she! – why, Margare...

But Mr. Hale resolved that he would not be disturbed by any such nonsensical idea; so he lay awake, ...

He almost said to himself that he did not like her, before their conversation ended; he tried so har...

He came up straight to her father, whose hands he took and wrung without a word - holding them in hi...

My father was a man, and I know the sex pretty well.

People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other...

Miss Benson had the power; which some people have, of carrying her wishes through to fulfillment; he...

He had tenderness in his heart — ‘a soft place,’ as Nicholas Higgins called it; but he had some prid...

We do not look for reason for logic in the passionate entreaties of those who are sick unto death; w...

God is just, and our lots are well portioned out by Him, although none, but He knows the bitterness ...

If Molly had not been so entirely loyal to her friend, she might havethought this constant brillianc...

Another year passed on . The waves of time seemed long since to have swept away all trace of poor Ma...

A little credulity helps one on through life very smoothly.

His laws once broken, His justice and the very nature of those laws bring the immutable retribution;...

A wise parent humors the desire for independent action so as to become the friend and advisor when ...

A little credulity helps one on through life very smoothly — better than always doubting and doubtin...

Miss Jenkyns wore a cravat, and a little bonnet like a jockey-cap, and altogether had the appearance...

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