Quotes

A list of quotes, (from literature, authors, philosophers, etc.)



It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."
Jane Austen, opening line from Pride & Prejudice

Willows whiten, aspens quiver, little breezes dusk and shiver, thro' the wave that runs forever by the island in the river, flowing down to Camelot. Four gray walls and four gray towers, overlook a space of flowers, and the silent isle imbowers, the Lady of Shalott.
Lord Alfred Tennyson, from the poem, The Lady of Shalot

My bride is here,
because my equal is here."
Charlotte Bronte from Jane Eyre

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake."
Victor Hugo

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!"
Charles Dickens from A Christmas Carol

The only reason for the existence of a novel is that it does attempt to represent life.
Henry James

People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people's minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms and virtues.
Elizabeth Gaskell

The future of English fiction may rest with this Unknown Public -- a reading public of three millions which lies right out of the pale of true literary civilization -- which is now waiting to be taught the difference between a good book and a bad.
Wilkie Collins

At night, when the curtains are drawn and the fire flickers, my books attain a collective dignity.
EM Forster

A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well.
Louisa May Alcott

"For five months I got up at six o'clock and got dressed by the lamplight. The fire would not yet be on. The house was very cold but I would put on a heavy coat, sit with my feet up to keep them from freezing and with fingers so cramped that I could scarcely hold a pen. I would write my "stunt" for the day. Sometimes it would be a poem in which I would carol blithely of blue skies and rippling brooks and flowery meads! Then I would thaw out my hands, eat breakfast and go to school. When people say to me, as they occasionally do, 'Oh how I envy your gift, how I wish I could write as you do', I am inclined to wonder, with some inward amusement, how much they would have envied me on those dark, cold, winter mornings of my apprenticeship."
Lucy Maud Montgomery


But he that dares not grasp the thorn Should never crave the rose.
Anne Bronte


One evening of late summer, before the nineteenth century had reached one-third of its span, a young man and woman, the latter carrying a child, were approaching the large village of Weydon-Priors, in Upper Wessex, on foot. They were plainly but not ill clad, though the thick hoar of dust which had accumulated on their shoes and garments from an obviously long journey lent a disadvantageous shabbiness to their appearance just now.
Thomas Hardy from The Mayor of Casterbridge


Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them"
Shakespeare from Twelfth Night


The Moral Law tells us the tune we have to play: our instincts are merely the keys.
CS Lewis from Mere Christianity


Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.
Anne Frank from The Diary of Anne Frank


Joy runs deeper than despair.
Corrie Ten Boom from The Hiding Place