Madding Crowd Quotes & Sayings

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife. — Thomas Gray

This supreme instance of Troy's goodness fell upon Gabriel's ears like the thirteenth stroke of a crazy clock. — Thomas Hardy

Men thin away to insignificance and oblivion quite as often by not making the most of good spirits when they have them as by lacking good spirits when they are indispensable. — Thomas Hardy

He had been held to her by a beautiful thread which it pained him to spoil by breaking, rather than by a chain he could not break. — Thomas Hardy

I shall be up before you are awake; I shall be afield before you are up; and I shall have breakfasted before you are afield. In short, I shall astonish you all. — Thomas Hardy

It was a fatal omission of Boldwood's that he had never once told her she was beautiful. — Thomas Hardy

Idiosyncrasy and vicissitude had combined to stamp Sergeant Troy as an exceptional being. — Thomas Hardy

When the love-led man had ceased from his labours Bathsheba came and looked him in the face.
'Gabriel, will you you stay on with me?' she said, smiling winningly, and not troubling to bring her lips quite together again at the end, because there was going to be another smile soon.
'I will,' said Gabriel.
And she smiled on him again. — Thomas Hardy

The difference between love and respect was markedly shown in her conduct. Bathsheba had spoken of her interest in Boldwood with the greatest freedom to Liddy, but she only communed with her own heart concerning Troy. — Thomas Hardy

Far from the madding crowd is a mistake on a honeymoon ... Solitude! Wherever you are, if you're on a honeymoon, you'll get quite as much solitude as is good for you every twenty-four hours. Constant change and distraction
that's what wants arranging for. Solitude will arrange itself. — Arnold Bennett

Seek out some retired and old-world spot, far from the madding crowd, and dream away a sunny week among its drowsy lanes - some half-forgotten nook, hidden away by the fairies, out of reach of the noisy world - some quaint-perched eyrie on the cliffs of Time, from whence the surging waves of the nineteenth century would sound far-off and faint. — Jerome K. Jerome

In reprinting this story for a new edition I am reminded that it was in the chapters of "Far from the Madding Crowd," as they appeared month by month in a popular magazine, that I first ventured to adopt the word "Wessex" from the pages of early English history, and give it a fictitious significance as the existing name of the district once included in that extinct kingdom. The series of novels I projected being mainly of the kind called local, they seemed to require a territorial definition of some sort to lend unity to their scene. — Thomas Hardy

He is as good as anybody in this parish! He is very particular, too, about going to church-yes, he is!'
'I am afeard nobody ever saw him there. I never did, certainly.'
'The reason of that is,' she said eagerly, 'that he goes in privately by the old tower door, just when the service commences, and sits at the back of the gallery. He told me so.'
This supreme instance of Troy's goodness fell upon Gabriel's ears like the thirteenth stroke of a crazy clock. It was not only received with utter incredulity as regarded itself, but threw doubt on all the assurances that had preceded it. — 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

There are considerations even before my consideration for you; reparations to be made-ties you know nothing of. If you repent of marrying, so do I. — Thomas Hardy

He was moderately truthful towards men, but to women lied like a Cretan-a system of ethics above all others calculated to win popularity at the first flush of admission into lively society. — Thomas Hardy

You know, mistress, that I love you, and shall love you always — Thomas Hardy

Katniss Everdeen owes her last name to Bathsheba Everdene, the lead character in 'Far From the Madding Crowd.' The two are very different, but both struggle with knowing their hearts. — Suzanne Collins

But you are too lovely even to care to be kind as others are. — Thomas Hardy

To be far from the madding crowd is to be mad indeed. — A.E. Coppard

He can blow the flute very well-that 'a can,' said a young married man, who having no individuality worth mentioning was known as 'Susan Tall's husband. — Thomas Hardy

The sky was clear
remarkably clear
and the twinkling of all the stars seemed to be but throbs of one body, timed by a common pulse. — Thomas Hardy