Gaskell Quotes & Sayings

Daniel was very like a child in all the parts of his character. He was strongly affected by whatever was present, and apt to forget the absent. He acted on impulse, and too often had reason to be sorry for it; but he hated his sorrow too much to let it teach him wisdom for the future. — Elizabeth Gaskell

It was a stinging pleasure to be in the room with her, and feel her presence. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Anticipation was the soul of enjoyment. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Yet, even before he left the room, - and certainly, not five minutes after, the clear conviction dawned upon her, shined bright upon her, that he did love her; that he had loved her; that he would love her. And she shrank and shuddered as under the fascination of some great power, repugnant to her whole previous life.She crept away, and hid from his idea. But it was of no use — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

I shall arm myself with a knife" said Mr. Hale: "the days of eating fruit so primitively as you describe are over with me. I must pare it and quarter it before I can enjoy it. — Elizabeth Gaskell

What's the use of watching? A watched pot never boils ... — Elizabeth Gaskell

He came up straight to her father, whose hands he took and wrung without a word - holding them in his for a minute or two, during which time his face, his eyes, his look, told of more sympathy than could be put into words. — Elizabeth Gaskell

It is well for us that we live at the present time, when everybody is logical and consistent. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I should have hoped to have trained him, my lady, to understand the rules of discretion."
"Trained! Train a barn-door fowl to be a pheasant, Mr. Horner! That would be the easier task. But you did right to speak of discretion rather than honour. Discretion looks to the consequences of actions - honour looks to the action itself, and is an instinct rather than a virtue. After all, it is possible you might have trained him to be discreet. — Elizabeth Gaskell

He is my first olive: let me make a face while I swallow it. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Looking back upon the year's accumulated heap of troubles, Margaret wondered how they had been borne. If she could have anticipated them, how she would have shrunk away and hid herself from the coming time! And yet day by day had, of itself, and by itself, been very endurable
small, keen, bright little spots of positive enjoyment having come sparkling into the very middle of sorrows. — Elizabeth Gaskell

She might be idle, and silent, and forgetful, - and what seemed more than all other privileges - she might be unhappy if she liked. — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

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

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

I just wished to know if you mean to marry the girl. Spite of what you said of her lightness, I ha' known her long enough to be sure she'll make a noble wife for any one, let him be what he may; and I mean to stand by her like a brother; and if you mean rightly, you'll not think the worse on me for what I've now said; and if
but no, I'll not say what I'll do to the man who wrongs a hair of her head. He shall rue it to the longest day he lives, that's all. Now, sir, what I ask of you is this. If you mean fair and honourable by her, well and good: but if not, for your own sake as well as hers, leave her alone, and never speak to her more. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I don't like shoppy people. I think we are far better off, knowing only cottagers and labourers, and people without pretence. — Elizabeth Gaskell

She had a fierce pleasure in the idea of telling Margaret unwelcome truths, in the shape of performance of duty. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Nothing had been the same; and this slight, all-pervading instability, had given her greater pain than if all had been too entirely changed for her to recognise it. I 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 sky above me looks as though it could not change, and yet it will. I am so tired-so tired of being whirled on through all these phases of my life, in which nothing abides by me, no creature, no place; it is like the circle in which the victims of earthly passion eddy continually. I am in the mood in which women of another religion take the veil. I seek heavenly steadfastness in earthy monotony. — Elizabeth Gaskell

When all are admitted, how can there be a Holy of Holies? — Elizabeth Gaskell

It is a great truth that you cannot extinguish violence by violence. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Where now was her proud motto, 'Fais ce que dois, advienne que pourra'? If she had but dared to bravely tell the truth as regarded herself, defying them to find out what she refused to tell concerning another, how light of heart she would now have felt! Not humbled before God, as having failed in trust towards Him; not degraded and abased in Mr. Thornton's sight. — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

I am so tired - so tired of being of being whirled on through all these phases of my life, in which nothing abides by me, no creature, no place; it is like the circle in which the victims of earthly passion eddy continually. — Elizabeth Gaskell

We cannot speak loudly or angrily at such times; we are not apt to be eager about mere worldly things, for our very awe at our quickened sense of the nearness of the invisible world, makes us calm and serene about the petty trifles of today. — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

My father once made us," she began, "keep a diary, in two columns; on one side we were to put down in the morning what we thought would be the course and events of the coming day, and at night we were to put down on the other side what really had happened. It would be to some people rather a sad way of telling their lives," (a tear dropped upon my hand at these words) - "I don't mean that mine has been sad, only so very different to what I expected. — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

It is bad to believe you in error. It would be infinitely worse to have known you a hypocrite. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Oh! that look of love!" continued he, between his teeth, as he bolted himself into his own private room. "And that cursed lie; which showed some terrible shame in the background, to be kept from the light in which I thought she lived perpetually! Oh, Margaret, Margaret! Mother, how you have tortured me! Oh! Margaret, could you not have loved me? I am but uncouth and hard, but I would never have led you into any falsehood for me. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Come! Poor little heart! Be cheery and brave. We'll be a great deal to one another, if we are thrown off and left desolate. — Elizabeth Gaskell

She went out, going rapidly towards the country, and trying to drown reflection by swiftness of motion. — Elizabeth Gaskell

On some such night as this she remembered promising to herself to live as brave and noble a life as any heroine she ever read or heard of in romance, a life sans peur et sans reproche; it had seemed to her then that she had only to will, and such a life would be accomplished. And now she had learnt that not only to will, but also to pray, was a necessary condition in the truly heroic. Trusting to herself, she had fallen. — Elizabeth Gaskell

She is too perfect to be known by fragments. No mean brick shall be a specimen of the building of my palace. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Don't be afraid," she said, coldly, " as far as love may go she may be worthy of you. It must have taken a good deal to overcome her pride. Don't be afraid, John. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I have passed out of childhood into old age. I have had no youth - no womanhood; the hopes of womanhood have closed for me - for I shall never marry; and I anticipate cares and sorrows just as if I were an old woman, and with the same fearful spirit. — Elizabeth Gaskell

But certainly, their lives are such as very often produce either inordinate self-sufficiency, or a morbid state of conscience. — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

As far as one knows of heroines from history. I'm capable of a great jerk, an effort, and then a relaxation - but steady every-day goodness is beyond me. I must be a moral kangaroo! — Elizabeth Gaskell

By degrees they spoke of education , and the book-learning that forms one part of it; and the result was that Ruth determined to get up early all throughout the bright summer mornings, to acquire the knowledge hereafter to be give to her child. Her mind was uncultivated, her reading scant; beyond the mere mechanical arts of education she knew nothing; but she had a refined taste, and excellent sense and judgment to separate the true from the false. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Your husband this morning! Mine tonight! What do you take him for?'
'A man' smiled Cynthia. 'And therefore, if you won't let me call him changeable, I'll coin a word and call him consolable. — Elizabeth Gaskell

She used to sit long hours upon the beach, gazing intently on the waves as they chafed with perpetual motion against the pebbly shore, - or she looked out upon the more distant heave, and sparkle against the sky, and heard, without being conscious of hearing, the eternal psalm, which went up continually. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I cannot stand objections. They make me so undecided. — Elizabeth Gaskell

By-and-by they'll find out, tyrants makes liars. — Elizabeth Gaskell

You can never work facts as you would fixed quantities, and say, given two facts, and the product is so and so. God has given men feelings and passions which cannot be worked into the problem, because they are for ever changing and uncertain. God has also made some weak; not in any one way, but in all. One is weak in body, another in mind, another in steadiness of purpose, a fourth can't tell right from wrong, and so on; or if he can tell the right, he wants strength to hold by it. Now, to my thinking, them that is strong in any of God's gifts is meant to help the weak,
be hanged
to the facts! — Elizabeth Gaskell

Pray, speak, sir; to see your face, and not be able to read it, gives me a worse dread than I trust any words of yours will justify. — Elizabeth Gaskell

He shrank from hearing Margaret's very name mentioned; he, while he blamed her
while he was jealous of her
while he renounced her
he loved her sorely, in spite of himself. — Elizabeth Gaskell

He could not - say rather, he would not - deny himself the chance of the pleasure of seeing Margaret. He had no end in this but the present gratification. — Elizabeth Gaskell

'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

He spoke as if the answer were a matter of indifference to him. But it was not so. For all his pain, he longed to see the author of it. Although he hated Margaret at times, when he thought of that gentle familiar attitude and all the attendant circumstances, he had a restless desire to renew her picture in his mind - a longing for the very atmosphere she breathed. — Elizabeth Gaskell

How shall I ever tell Aunt Shaw?' she whispered, after some time of delicious silence.
'Let me speak to her.'
'Oh, no! I owe it to her, - but what will she say?'
'I can guess. Her first exclamation will be, "That man!" '
'Hush!' said Margaret, 'or I shall try and show you your mother's indignant tones as she says, "That woman!" — Elizabeth Gaskell

Each dainty little child ran up to its mother, or aunt, or particular friend; but Molly had no one to go to. — Elizabeth Gaskell

He had never known her value, he thought, till now. — Elizabeth Gaskell

A sense of change, of individual nothingness, of perplexity and disappointment, overpowered Margaret. Nothing had been the same; and this slight, all-pervading instability, had given her greater pain than if all had been too entirely changed for her to recognize it. — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

Somehow, the very errors and faults of one individual served to call out the higher excellencies in another, and so they re-acted upon each other, and the result of short discords was exceeding harmony and peace. — Elizabeth Gaskell

How am I to dress up in my finery, and go off and away to smart parties, after the sorrow I have seen today? — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

Were all men equal to-night, some would get the start by rising an hour earlier to-morrow. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Margaret found that the indifferent, careless conversations of one who, however kind, was not too warm and anxious a sympathizer, did her good. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I think that if advice is good it's the best comfort. — Elizabeth Gaskell

She lay down and never stirred. To move hand or foot, or even so much as one finger, would have been an exertion beyond the powers of either volition or motion. She was so tired, so stunned, that she thought she never slept at all; her feverish thoughts passed and repassed the boundary between sleeping and waking, and kept their own miserable identity. — Elizabeth Gaskell

If they came sorrowing, and wanting sympathy in a complicated trouble like the present, then they would be felt as a shadow in all these houses of intimate acquaintances, not friends — Elizabeth Gaskell

When oranges came in, a curious proceeding was gone through. Miss Jenkyns did not like to cut the fruit, for, as she observed, the juice all ran out nobody knew where, sucking [only I think she used some more recondite word] was in fact the only way of enjoying oranges; but then there was the unpleasant association with a ceremony frequently gone through by little babies; and so, after dessert, in orange season, Miss Jenkyns and Miss Matty used to rise up, possess themselves each of an orange in silence, and withdraw to the privacy of their own rooms to indulge in sucking oranges. — Elizabeth Gaskell

The rich man dines, while the poor man pines,
And eats his heart away;
'They teach us lies,' he sternly cries,
'Would BROTHERS do as they?'
The Dream. — Elizabeth Gaskell

But the monotonous life led by invalids often makes them like children, inasmuch as thy have neither of them any sense of proportion in events, and seem each to believe that the walls and curtains which shut in their world, and shut out everything else, must of necessity be larger than anything hidden beyond. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Miss Hale might love another - was indifferent and contemptuous to him - but he would yet do her faithful acts of service of which she should never know. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Death was as true and as common as poverty; yet people never spoke about that, loud out in the streets. It was a word not to be mentioned to ears polite. — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

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

Again, stepping nearer, he besought her with another tremulous eager call upon her name.
'Margaret!'
Still lower went the head; more closely hidden was the face, almost resting on the table before her. He came close to her. He knelt by her side, to bring his face to a level with her ear; and whispered-panted out the words:
'Take care. - If you do not speak - I shall claim you as my own in some strange presumptuous way. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Oh yes!' and suddenly the wintry frost-bound look of care had left Mr. Thornton's face, as if some soft summer gale had blown all anxiety away from his mind; and, though his mouth was as much compressed as before, his eyes smiled out benignly on his questioner. — Elizabeth Gaskell

But she had learnt, in those solemn hours of thought, that she herself must one day answer for her own life, and what she had done with it; and she tried to settle that most difficult problem, how much was to be utterly merged in obedience to authority, and how much might be set apart for freedom in working. — Elizabeth Gaskell

And again it's no fair play to t' French. Four o' them is rightly matched wi' one o' us; and if we go an' fight 'em four to four it's like as if yo' fell to beatin' Sylvie there, or little Billy Croxton, as isn't breeched. And that's my mind. — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

But the cloud never comes in that quarter of the horizon
from which we watch for it. — Elizabeth Gaskell

What could he mean by speaking so, as if I were always thinking that he cared for me, when I know he does not; he cannot ... But I won't care for him. I surely am mistress enough of myself to control this wild, strange, miserable feeling — Elizabeth Gaskell

It was one of Mrs. Hale's fitful days, when everything was a difficulty and a hardship; and Mr Lennox's appearance took this shape, although secretly she felt complimented by his thinking it worthwhile to call. — Elizabeth Gaskell

And in his button-hole he stuck a narcissus, hoping it would attract Mary's notice, so that he might have the delight of giving it her. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Though it may take much suffering to kill the able-bodied and effective members of society, it does not take much to reduce them to worn, listless, diseased creatures, who thenceforward crawl through life with moody hearts and pain-stricken bodies. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Mr. Thornton felt that in this influx no one was speaking to Margaret, and was restless under this apparent neglect. But he never went near her himself; he did not look at her. Only, he knew what she was doing - or not doing - better than anyone else in the room. Margaret was so unconscious of herself, and so much amused by watching other people, that she never thought whether she was left unnoticed or not. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it wasn't me! — Elizabeth Gaskell

Abstemiousness in her daily habits, it was part of her pride — Elizabeth Gaskell

With a bound, the sun of a molten fiery red cam above the horizon, and immediately thousands of little birds sang out for joy, and a soft chorus of mysterious, glad murmurs came forth from the earth; the low whispering wind left its hiding-place among the clefts and hollows of the hills, and wandered among the rustling herbs and trees, waking the flower-buds to the life of another day. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I made such an idol of my beautiful Osborne, and now it turns out he has feet of clay. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Such decisions ab extra* are sometimes a wonderful relief to those whose habit it has been to decide, not only for themselves, but for every one else;and occasionally the relaxation of the strain which a character for infallible wisdom brings with it does much to restore health.
*from outside — Elizabeth Gaskell

There she stood, very pale and quiet, with her large grave eyes observing everything, - up to every present circumstance, however small. They could not understand how her heart was aching all the time, with a heavy pressure that no sighs could lift off or relieve, and how constant exertion for her perceptive faculties was the only way to keep herself from crying out with pain. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Now, in Mr. Thornton's face the straight brows fell over the clear deep-set earnest eyes, which, without being unpleasantly sharp, seemed intent enough to penetrate into the very heart and core of what he was looking at. The lines in the face were few but firm, as if they were carved in marble, and lay principally about the lips, which were slightly compressed over a set of teeth so faultless and beautiful as to give the effect of sudden sunlight when the rare bright smile, coming in an instant and shining out of the eyes, changed the whole look from the severe and resolved expression of a man ready to do and dare everything, to the keen honest enjoyment of the moment, which is seldom shown so fearlessly and instantaneously except by children — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

Tobacco and drink deaden the pangs of hunger, and make one forget the miserable home, the desolate future. They — Elizabeth Gaskell

Waiting is far more difficult than doing. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I would not trust a mouse to a woman if a man's judgment could be had. — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

Mrs. Thornton; the only mother he has, I believe, — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

Nothing like the act of eating for equalizing men. Dying is nothing to it. — Elizabeth Gaskell

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

And now she had learnt that not only to will, but also to pray, was a necessary condition in the truly heroic. — Elizabeth Gaskell

They forgot that the strike was in this instance the consequence of want and need, suffered unjustly, as the endurers believed; for, however insane, and without ground of reason, such was their belief, and such was the cause of their violence. It is a great truth that you cannot extinguish violence by violence. You may put it down for a time; but while you are crowing over your imaginary success, see if it does not return with seven devils worse than its former self! No — Elizabeth Gaskell