Top 100 Elizabeth Gaskell Quotes
#1. She stood by the tea-table in a light-coloured muslin gown, which had a good deal of pink about it. She looked as if she was not attending to the conversation, but solely busy with the tea-cups, among which her round ivory hands moved with pretty, noiseless, daintiness.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#3. The contemplation of it, even at this distance of time, has taken away my breath and my grammar, and unless I subdue my emotion, my spelling will go too.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#4. Wearily she went to bed, wearily she arose in four or five hours' time. But with the morning came hope, and a brighter view of things.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#5. His laws once broken, His justice and the very nature of those laws bring the immutable retribution; but if we turn penitently to Him, He enables us to bear our punishment with a meek and docile heart, 'for His mercy endureth forever.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#7. In general, it is the people who are left behind stationary, who give way to low spirits at any parting; the travellers, however bitterly they may feel the separation, find something in the change of scene to soften regret in the very first hour of separation.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#10. Pray don't go into similes, Margaret; you have led us off once already,' said her father, smiling, yet uneasy at the thought that they were detaining Mr. Thornton against his will, which was a mistake; for he rather liked it, as long as Margaret would talk, although what she said only irritated him.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#11. I made such an idol of my beautiful Osborne, and now it turns out he has feet of clay.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#12. And as I said before, though I should na' say it, I'm a good hand, measter, and a steady man - specially when I can keep fro' drink; and that
Elizabeth Gaskell
#13. I do not look on self-indulgent, sensual people as worthy of my hatred; I simply look upon them with contempt for their poorness of character.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#14. Roger let go; they were now on firm ground, and he did not wish any watchers to think that he was exercising any constraint over his father; and this quiet obedience to his impatient commands did more to soothe the Squire than anything else could have effected just then.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#15. Well, He had known what love was-a sharp pang, a fierce experience, in the midst of whose flames he was struggling! but, through that furnace he would fight his way out into the serenity of middle age,-all the richer and more human for having known this great passion.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#16. My heart burnt within me with indignation and grief; we could think of nothing else. All night long we had only snatches of sleep, waking up perpetually to the sense of a great shock and grief. Every one is feeling the same. I never knew so universal a feeling.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#17. begin to understand now what heaven must be - and, oh! the grandeur and repose of the words - "The same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." Everlasting! "From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God." That
Elizabeth Gaskell
#18. She went out, going rapidly towards the country, and trying to drown reflection by swiftness of motion.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#19. She lay with her face to the wall, muttering low, but muttering always: Alas! alas! what is done in youth can never be undone in age! what is done in youth can never be undone in age!
Elizabeth Gaskell
#20. But suppose it was truth double strong, it were no truth to me if I couldna take it in. I daresay there's truth in yon Latin book on your shelves; but it's gibberish and no truth to me, unless I know the meaning o' the words.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#21. Sometimes when I've thought o' my life, and the little pleasure I've had in it, I've believed that, maybe, I was one of those doomed to die by the falling of a star from heaven.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#22. Tobacco and drink deaden the pangs of hunger, and make one forget the miserable home, the desolate future. They
Elizabeth Gaskell
#23. 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)
Elizabeth Gaskell
#24. I know we differ in our religious opinions; but don't you give me credit for having some, though not the same as yours?
Elizabeth Gaskell
#27. I dare say there's many a woman makes as sad a mistake as I have done, and only finds it out too late.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#28. She is too perfect to be known by fragments. No mean brick shall be a specimen of the building of my palace.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#29. I don't believe there's a man in Milton who knows how to sit still; and it is a great art.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#30. He swallowed down the dry choking sobs which had been heaving up from his heart hitherto ...
Elizabeth Gaskell
#31. If the world was full of perplexing problems she would trust, and only ask to see the one step needful for the hour.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#32. But when the secrets of all hearts shall be made known, their virtues will astound us in far greater degree.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#33. 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.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#34. Margaret liked this smile; it was the first thing she had admired in this new friend of her father's; and the opposition of character, shown in all these details of appearance she had just been noticing, seemed to explain the attraction they evidently felt towards each other.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#35. Opportunities are not often wanting where inclination goes before ...
Elizabeth Gaskell
#36. Being daunted by her father in every intellectual attempt, she read every book that came in her way, almost with as much delight as if it had been forbidden.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#37. All the morning since he got up he had been trying to fight through his duties - leaning against a hope - a hope that first had bowed, and then had broke as soon as he really tried its weight.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#38. He shook hands with Margaret. He knew it was the first time their hands had met, though she was perfectly unconscious of the fact.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#39. I only mean, Bessy, there's good and bad in everything in this world; and as you felt the bad up here, I thought it was but fair you should know the bad down there.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#41. 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!-
Elizabeth Gaskell
#42. Or, in the triumph of the crowded procession, have the helpless been trampled on, instead of being gently lifted aside out of the roadway of the conqueror, whom they have no power to accompany on his march? It
Elizabeth Gaskell
#43. She found Nicholas busily engaged in making a penny spin on the dresser, for the amusement of three little children, who were clinging to him in a fearless manner. He, as well as they, was smiling at a good long spin;
Elizabeth Gaskell
#45. She tried to comfort herself with the idea, that what he imagined her to be, did not alter the fact of what she was. But it was a truism, a phantom, and broke down under the weight of her regret. She
Elizabeth Gaskell
#46. O, it ended in my having nothing to say, when I sat down to write. But sometimes, when I get hold of a book, I wonder why I let such a poor reason stop me. It does not others.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#47. 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.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#48. He had married a delicate fine London lady; it was one of those perplexing marriages of which one cannot understand the reasons.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#49. To begin with the old rigmarole of childhood. In a country there was a shire, and in that shire there was a town, and in that town there was a house, and in that house there was a room, and in that room there was a bed, and in that bed there lay a little girl;
Elizabeth Gaskell
#50. A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#52. Correspondence, which bears much the same relation to personal intercourse that the books of dried plats I sometimes see do to the living and fresh flowers in the lanes and meadows.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#53. It's the only way working men can get their rights, by all joining together. More the members, more chance for each one separate man having justice done him.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#54. Oh dear! how she could have loved him if he had but been different, with a difference which she felt, on reflection, to be one that went low - deep down.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#55. But Mr. Hale resolved that he would not be disturbed by any such nonsensical idea; so he lay awake, determining not to think about it.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#56. I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it wasn't me!
Elizabeth Gaskell
#57. 'Your beauty was the first that won the place, And scal'd the walls of my undaunted heart, Which, captive now, pines in a caitive case, Unkindly met with rigour for desert; - Yet not the less your servant shall abide, In spite of rude repulse or silent pride.' WILLIAM FOWLER.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#58. 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 ...
Elizabeth Gaskell
#59. The prospect of soon losing her companion seemed to give force to every sweet quality and charm which Edith possessed.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#60. All sorts of thoughts cross one's mind - it depends upon whether one gives them harbour and encouragement
Elizabeth Gaskell
#61. Were all men equal to-night, some would get the start by rising an hour earlier to-morrow.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#62. Yet is was very difficult to seperate her interpretation, and keep it distinct from his meaning.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#63. It seems strange to think, that what gives us most hope for the future should be called Dolores, said Margaret.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#64. But fate it a cunning hussy, and builds up her plans as imperceptibly as a bird builds her nest; and with the same kind of unconsidered trifles.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#65. Thus, you see, he arrived at the same end, via supposed duty, that he was previously pledged to via interest. I fancy a good number of us, when any line of action will promote our own interest, can make ourselves believe that reasons exist which compel us to it as a duty.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#66. If Miss Beresford had not been in such a hurry to marry a poor country clergyman, there was no knowing what she might not have become. But Dixon was too loyal to desert her in her affliction and downfall (alias her married life).
Elizabeth Gaskell
#67. March brought the news of Frederick's marriage. He and Dolores wrote; she in Spanish-English, as was but natural, and he with little turns and inversions of words which proved how far the idioms of his bride's country were infecting him.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#68. It is always the savage lads, with their love of excitement, who head the riot - reckless to what bloodshed it may lead.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#69. Till to have loved her without return would have lifted you higher than all those, be they who they may, that have ever known her to love.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#70. It is the first changes among familiar things that make such a mystery of time to the young; afterwards we lose the sense of the mysterious. I take changes in all I see as a matter of course. The instability of all human things is familiar to me, to you it is new and oppressive. (Mr. Bell)
Elizabeth Gaskell
#71. What does it signify how we dress here at Cranford, where everybody knows us?" And if they go from home, their reason is equally cogent, "What does it signify how we dress here, where nobody knows us?
Elizabeth Gaskell
#72. Of all faults the one she most despised in others was the want of bravery; the meanness of heart which leads to untruth.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#73. Mrs Forrester ... sat in state, pretending not to know what cakes were sent up, though she knew, and we knew, and she knew that we knew, and we knew that she knew that we knew, she had been busy all the morning making tea-bread and sponge-cakes.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#75. The visit promised to be more honorable than agreeable, and Maggie almost wished herself at home again.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#76. 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.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#77. But, surely, if the mind is too long directed to one object only, it will get stiff and rigid, and unable to take in many interests.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#78. Dixon was not unconscious of this awed reverence which was given to her; nor did she dislike it; it flattered her as much as Louis the Fourteenth was flattered by his courtiers shading their eyes from the dazzling light of his presence.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#79. He could not forget the touch of her arms around his neck, impatiently felt as it had been at the time; but now the recollection of her clinging defence of him, seemed to thrill him through and through, - to melt away every resolution, all power of self-control, as if it were wax before a fire.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#80. Oh!s little bird told us,' said Miss Browning. Molly knew that little bird from her childhood, and had always hated it, and longed to wring its neck. Why could not people speak out and say that they did not mean to give up the name of their informant?
Elizabeth Gaskell
#82. But certainly, their lives are such as very often produce either inordinate self-sufficiency, or a morbid state of conscience.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#83. Edith was in the mood to think that any pleasure enjoyed away from her was a tacit affront, or at best a proof of indifference.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#84. The sorrow was no less in reality, but it became less oppressive from having some one in precisely the same relation to it as that in which she stood.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#85. There was no need to struggle for their respect. He had it, and he knew it; and the security of this gave a fine grand quietness to his voice and ways, which Margaret had missed before. He
Elizabeth Gaskell
#86. Loyalty and obedience to wisdom and justice are fine; but it is still finer to defy arbitrary power, unjustly and cruelly used
not on behalf of ourselves, but on behalf of others more helpless.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#87. As to th' language, I'm welly used to it; it dunnot matter to me. I'm not nesh mysel' when I'm put out. It were th' fact that I were na wanted theer, no more nor ony other place, as I minded.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#89. Women are queer, unreasoning creatures, and are just as likely as not to love a man who has been throwing away his affection.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#90. He loved her, and would love her; and defy her, and this miserable bodily pain.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#91. probably (as the rumour had spread through the town, reaching her ears) one of the poor maddened turn-outs,
Elizabeth Gaskell
#92. Osborne and Roger knowing that the wife of the former was a Frenchwoman, and, conscious of each other's knowledge, felt doubly awkward; while Molly was as much confused as though she herself were secretly married.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#93. He knew how she would love. He had not loved her without gaining that instinctive knowledge of what capabilities were in her. Her soul would walk in glorious sunlight if any man was worthy, by his power of loving, to win back her love.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#94. For sure, th' world is in a confusion that passes me or any other man to understand; it needs fettling, and who's to fettle it, if it's as yon folks say, and there's nought but what we see?
Elizabeth Gaskell
#95. The morning brought more peace if it did not entirely dissipate fear.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#96. There was no near sound - no steam-engine at work with beat and pant - no click of machinery, or mingling and clashing of many sharp voices; but far away, the ominous gathering roar, deep-clamouring.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#97. You know the proverb, Mr. Hale, 'set a beggar on horseback, and he'll ride to the devil' - well, some of these early manufacturers did ride to the devil in a magnificent style - crushing human bone and flesh beneath their horses' hoofs without remorse.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#98. 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.
Elizabeth Gaskell
#99. I may be the Cinderella to put on the slipper after all.' Margaret
Elizabeth Gaskell
#100. He was lashing himself again into an impotent rage, painful to a son to witness
Elizabeth Gaskell
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