War makes good history but peace is poor reading. Thomas Hardy More Quotes by Thomas Hardy More Quotes From Thomas Hardy Silence has sometimes a remarkable power of showing itself as the disembodied soul of feeling wandering without its carcase, and it is then more impressive than speech. Thomas Hardy silencesoulfeelings It appears that ordinary men take wives because possession is not possible without marriage, and that ordinary women accept husbands because marriage is not possible without possession Thomas Hardy wifehusbandmen Did it never strike your mind that what every woman says, some women may feel? Thomas Hardy tess-of-the-d-urbervillesmindmay I agree to the conditions, Angel; because you know best what my punishment ought to be; only - only - don't make it more than I can bear! Thomas Hardy punishmentangelbears Sometimes a woman's love of being loved gets the better of her conscience, and though she is agonized at the thought of treating a man cruelly, she encourages him to love her while she doesn't love him at all. Then, when she sees him suffering, her remorse sets in, and she does what she can to repair the wrong. Thomas Hardy sufferingmensex It was terribly beautiful to Tess today, for since her eyes last fell upon it she had learnt that the serpent hisses where the sweet birds sing. Thomas Hardy eyebeautifulsweet A lover without indiscretion is no lover at all. Thomas Hardy discretionheartlove Ladies know what to guard against, because they read novels that tell them of these tricks. Thomas Hardy tess-of-the-d-urbervillestricksnovel Is a woman a thinking unit at all, or a fraction always wanting its integer? Thomas Hardy unitsfractionsthinking Because what's the use of learning that I am one of a long row only - finding out that there is set down in some old book somebody just like me, and to know that I shall only act her part; making me sad, that's all. The best is not to remember your nature and your past doings have been just like thousands' and thousands', and that your coming life and doings'll be like thousands' and thousands'. Thomas Hardy longbookpast My weakness has always been to prefer the large intention of an unskilful artist to the trivial intention of an accomplished one: in other words, I am more interested in the high ideas of a feeble executant than in the high execution of a feeble thinker. Thomas Hardy artistwritingideas But his dreams were as gigantic as his surroundings were small. Thomas Hardy surroundingsdream It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs. Thomas Hardy languagefeelingsmen That mercy towards one set of creatures was cruelty towards another sickened his sense of harmony. As you got older, and felt yourself to be at the center of your time, and not at a point in its circumference, as you had felt when you were little, you were seized with a sort of shuddering, he perceived. All around you there seemed to be something glaring, garish, rattling, and the noises and glares hit upon the little cell called your life, and shook it, and warped it. Thomas Hardy cellsnoiselittles The social mould civilization fits us into have no more relation to our actual shapes than the conventional shapes of the constellations have to the real star-patterns. I am called Mrs. Richard Phillotson, living a calm wedded life with my counterpart of that name. But I am not really Mrs. Richard Phillotson, but a woman tossed about, all alone, with aberrant passions, and unaccountable antipathies. Thomas Hardy passionstarsreal We learn that it is not the rays which bodies absorb, but those which they reject, that give them the colours they are known by; and in the same way people are specialized by their dislikes and antagonisms, whilst their goodwill is looked upon as no attribute at all. Thomas Hardy bodygivingpeople There are accents in the eye which are not on the tongue, and more tales come from pale lips than can enter an ear. It is both the grandeur and the pain of the remoter moods that they avoid the pathway of sound. Thomas Hardy lipspaineye So do flux and reflux--the rhythm of change--alternate and persist in everything under the sky. Thomas Hardy fluxrhythmsky Beauty lay not in the thing, but in what the thing symbolized. Thomas Hardy tess-of-the-d-urbervilleslays So each had a private little sun for her soul to bask in; some dream, some affection, some hobby, or at least some remote and distant hope. Thomas Hardy hobbiessouldream
