Thomas Hardy Quotes

Tess's feminine hope - shall we confess it - had been so obstinately recuperative as to revive in her surreptitious visions of a domiciliary intimacy continued long enough to break down his coldness even against his judgement. Though unsophisticated in the usual sense, she was not incomplete; and it would have denoted deficiency of womanhood if she had not instinctively known what an argument lies in propinquity. Nothing else would save her, she knew, if this failed. It was wrong to hope in what was of the nature of strategy, she said to herself; yet that sort of hope she could not extinguish. His last representation had now been made, and it was, as she said, a new view. She had truly never though so far as that, and his lucid picture of possible offspring who would scorn her was one that brought deadly conviction to an honest heart which was humanitarian to its centre. Sheer experience had already taught her that, in some circumstances, there was one thing better than to lead a good life, and that was to be saved from leading any life whatever. Like all who have been previsioned by suffering, she could, in the words of M. Sully-Prudhomme, hear a penal sentence in the fiat, 'You shall be born,' particularly if addressed to potential issue or hers.

~ Thomas Hardy

You have never loved me as I love you--never--never! Yours is not a passionate heart--your heart does not burn in a flame! You are, upon the whole, a sort of fay, or sprite-- not a woman!

~ Thomas Hardy

He's charmed by her as if she were some fairy! continued Arabella. See how he looks round at her, and lets his eyes rest on her. I am inclined to think that she don't care for him quite so much as he does for her. She's not a particular warm-hearted creature to my thinking, though she cares for him pretty middling much-- as much as she's able to; and he could make her heart ache a bit if he liked to try--which he's too simple to do.

~ Thomas Hardy

Don't take on about her, Gabriel. What difference does it make whose sweetheart she is, since she can't be yours?''That's the very thing I say to myself,' said Gabriel.

~ Thomas Hardy

When you've made up your mind to marry, take the first respectable body that comes to hand - she's as good as any other; they be all alike in groundwork: 'tis only in the flourishes there's a difference.

~ Thomas Hardy

There was hardly a touch of earth in her love for Clare. To her sublime trustfulness he was all that goodness could be—knew all that a guide, philosopher, and friend should know. She thought every line in the contour of his person the perfection of masculine beauty, his soul the soul of a saint, his intellect that of a seer. The wisdom of her love for him, as love, sustained her dignity; she seemed to be wearing a crown. The compassion of his love for her, as she saw it, made her lift up her heart to him in devotion. He would sometimes catch her large, worshipful eyes, that had no bottom to them looking at him from their depths, as if she saw something immortal before her.

~ Thomas Hardy

When you've made up your mind to marry, take the first respectable body that comes to hand- she's as good as any other; they'll be all alike in the groundwork; 'tis only in the flourishes there's a difference.

~ Thomas Hardy

To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature.

~ Thomas Hardy

Good but not religious-good.

~ Thomas Hardy

Give way to the Better if way to the Better there be It exacts a full look at the Worst.

~ Thomas Hardy

War makes rattling good history but Peace is poor reading.

~ Thomas Hardy

If Galileo had said in verse that the world moved the Inquisition might have let him alone.

~ Thomas Hardy

Dialect words - those terrible marks of the beast to the truly genteel.

~ Thomas Hardy

If I really seem vain, it is that I am only vain in my ways—not in my heart. The worst women are those vain in their hearts, and not in their ways.

~ Thomas Hardy

Don't for God's sake speak as saint to sinner, but as you yourself to me myself - poor me!

~ Thomas Hardy

The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfillment of that hope never entirely removes.

~ Thomas Hardy

Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure can be acquired by art.

~ Thomas Hardy

Patience, that blending of moral courage with physical timidity.

~ Thomas Hardy

The value of old age depends upon the person who reaches it. To some men of early performance it is useless. To others, who are late to develop, it just enables them to finish the job.

~ Thomas Hardy

I am the family face; flesh perishes, I live on.

~ Thomas Hardy

The main object of religion is not to get a man into heaven, but to get heaven into him.

~ Thomas Hardy

Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.

~ Thomas Hardy

Some folk want their luck buttered.

~ Thomas Hardy

Fear is the mother of foresight.

~ Thomas Hardy

You can do anything with bayonets except sit on them.

~ Thomas Hardy