“People go on marrying because they can't resist natural forces, although many of them may know perfectly well that they are possibly buying a month's pleasure with a life's discomfort.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“But no one came. Because no one ever does.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“At first I did not love you, Jude; that I own. When I first knew you I merely wanted you to love me. I did not exactly flirt with you; but that inborn craving which undermines some women's morals almost more than unbridled passion--the craving to attract and captivate, regardless of the injury it may do the man--was in me; and when I found I had caught you, I was frightened. And then--I don't know how it was-- I couldn't bear to let you go--possibly to Arabella again--and so I got to love you, Jude. But you see, however fondly it ended, it began in the selfish and cruel wish to make your heart ache for me without letting mine ache for you.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“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, quote from Jude the Obscure
“Sometimes a woman's love of being loved gets the better of her conscience, and though she is agonized at the thought of treating a man cruelly, she encourages him to love her while she doesn't love him at all. Then, when she sees him suffering, her remorse sets in, and she does what she can to repair the wrong.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“...it is foreign to a man's nature to go on loving a person when he is told that he must and shall be that person's lover. There would be a much likelier chance of his doing it if he were told not to love. If the marriage ceremony consisted in an oath and signed contract between the parties to cease loving from that day forward, in consideration of personal possession being given, and to avoid each other's society as much as possible in public, there would be more loving couples than there are now. Fancy the secret meetings between the perjuring husband and wife, the denials of having seen each other, the clambering in at bedroom windows, and the hiding in closets! There'd be little cooling then.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“Remember that the best and greatest among mankind are those who do themselves no worldly good. Every successful man is more or less a selfish man. The devoted fail...”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“But his dreams were as gigantic as his surroundings were small.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“Somebody might have come along that way who would have asked him his trouble, and might have cheered him by saying that his notions were further advanced than those of his grammarian. But nobody did come, because nobody does; and under the crushing recognition of his gigantic error Jude continued to wish himself out of the world.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“I may do some good before I am dead--be a sort of success as a frightful example of what not to do; and so illustrate a moral story.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“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, quote from Jude the Obscure
“You concede nothing to me and I have to concede everything to you.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“The beggarly question of parentage--what is it, after all? What does it matter, when you come to think of it, whether a child is yours by blood or not? All the little ones of our time are collectively the children of us adults of the time, and entitled to our general care. That excessive regard of parents for their own children, and their dislike of other people's, is, like class-feeling, patriotism, save-your-own-soul-ism, and other virtues, a mean exclusiveness at bottom.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“You are Joseph the dreamer of dreams, dear Jude.
And a tragic Don Quixote. And sometimes you are St. Stephen, who, while they
were stoning him, could see Heaven opened. Oh, my poor friend and comrade,
you'll suffer yet!”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“Teach me to live, that I may dread
The grave as little as my bed.
Teach me to die…”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“--the ethereal, fine-nerved, sensitive girl, quite unfitted by temperament and instinct to fulfil the conditions of the matrimonial relation with Phillotson, possibly with scarce any man...”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“We ought to have lived in mental communion, and no more.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“I have no fear of men, as such, nor of their books. I have mixed with them--one or two of them particularly-- almost as one of their own sex. I mean I have not felt about them as most women are taught to feel--to be on their guard against attacks on their virtue; for no average man-- no man short of a sensual savage--will molest a woman by day or night, at home or abroad, unless she invites him. Until she says by a look 'Come on' he is always afraid to, and if you never say it, or look it, he never comes.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“Women are so strange in their influence that they tempt you to misplaced kindness.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“Always wanting another man than your own.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“That mercy towards one set of creatures was cruelty towards another sickened his sense of harmony. As you got older, and felt yourself to be at the center of your time, and not at a point in its circumference, as you had felt when you were little, you were seized with a sort of shuddering, he perceived. All around you there seemed to be something glaring, garish, rattling, and the noises and glares hit upon the little cell called your life, and shook it, and warped it.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“you dear, sweet, tantalizing phantom--hardly flesh at all; so that when I put my arms round you I almost expect them to pass through you as through air!”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“It is a difficult question, my friends, for any young man-- that question I had to grapple with, and which thousands are weighing at the present moment in these uprising times-- whether to follow uncritically the track he finds himself in, without considering his aptness for it, or to consider what his aptness or bent may be, and re-shape his course accordingly. I tried to do the latter, and I failed. But I don't admit that my failure proved my view to be a wrong one, or that my success would have made it a right one; though that's how we appraise such attempts nowadays--I mean, not by their essential soundness, but by their accidental outcomes. If I had ended by becoming like one of these gentlemen in red and black that we saw dropping in here by now, everybody would have said: 'See how wise that young man was, to follow the bent of his nature!' But having ended no better than I began they say: 'See what a fool that fellow was in following a freak of his fancy!”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“you are absolutely the most ethereal, least sensual woman I ever knew to exist without inhuman sexlessness.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“I hate to be what is called a clever girl--there are too many of that sort now!”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“You simply mean that you flirted outrageously with him, poor old chap, and then repented, and to make reparation, married him, though you tortured yourself to death by doing it.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“He waited day after day, saying that it was perfectly absurd to expect, yet expecting.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“I had a neat stock of fixed opinions, but they dropped away one by one; and the further I get the less sure I am. I doubt if I have anything more for my present rule of life than following inclinations which do me and nobody else any harm, and actually give pleasure to those I love best. There, gentlemen, since you wanted to know how I was getting on, I have told you. Much good may it do you! I cannot explain further here. I perceive there is something wrong somewhere in our social formulas: what it is can only be discovered by men or women with greater insight than mine--if, indeed, they ever discover it-- at least in our time. 'For who knoweth what is good for man in this life?--and who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“What at night had been perfect and ideal was by day the more or less defective real.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
“My wicked heart will ramble on in spite of myself. (Arabella)”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from Jude the Obscure
Thomas Hardy
Born place: in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, England, The United Kingdom
Born date June 2, 1840
See more on GoodReads
“So if you’re an introvert like me, especially a female introvert, or a person who is expected to give away your energy to everyone else on the reg, I want to encourage you to find time to be alone. Don’t be afraid to excuse yourself. Recharge for as long as you need. Lean up against a tree and take a break from the other bears. I’ll be there too, but I promise not to bother you.”
― Amy Schumer, quote from The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo
“It's a hard emotion to explain— what it feels like to fake every single moment of your life. To breathe but to not exist. To smile but to not be happy. To nod and agree but to not really care.”
― Jay McLean, quote from Kick, Push
“All I can look after is my own farm, serve those who seek when they are sick. I have children to look after so that they will not know what hunger is."
-Istak”
― F. Sionil José, quote from Dusk
“...the brain is like a muscle, and if you don't exercise it by reading and doing creative stuff, it'll get weak and mushy.”
― Jeff Kinney, quote from Double Down
“What do you think, Jemma”
It takes a second to realize that she’s talking to me. I’m too focused on the fact that Ryder’s sitting beside me--just inches away--holding my hand beneath the table. “What?” I ask, glancing around at the expected faces. “Oh, the train. Yeah, maybe.”
“They should go up a week early,” Laura Grace declares. “Take some time to see the city. Maybe catch a couple of Broadway shows or ball games or something. We could go with them!”
“No,” Ryder says, a little too loudly. “I just meant…we should probably do it on our own, me and Jemma. Learn our way around and all that. Y’all can come up for Thanksgiving break, once we get settled and everything.”
Laura Grace nods. “That’s a great idea. We could get rooms at the Plaza, watch the Macy’s Parade. And the two of you can show us around.”
Ryder nods. “Exactly.”
Beneath the table, I give his hand a squeeze.
Laura Grace eyes my plate suspiciously. “You’re just pushing your food around, aren’t you? You’ve barely taken two bites. I thought you loved Lou’s Cornish hens.”
“I do. I’m sorry. All I can think about is that English project due this week.” I look over at Ryder with a faux scowl. “We’re already way behind--you’ve always got some excuse. We should probably work on it tonight.”
“Probably so,” Ryder says with an exasperated-sounding sigh.
“That’s the third project the two of you have been paired up on,” Mama says, shaking her head. “I hope you two can behave well enough to get your work done properly. No more arguing like the last time.”
We’d pretended to fight over a calculus project. Yes, a calculus project. Is there really any such thing?
“We’re trying really hard to behave,” I say, shooting Ryder a sidelong glance. “Right?”
His cheeks pinken deliciously at the innuendo. I love it when Ryder blushes. Totally adorable.
“Right,” he mumbles, his gaze fixed on his lap.”
― Kristi Cook, quote from Magnolia
Wooden on Leadership...
Boy Proof
Breathe, Annie, Brea...
The Glass Arrow
The Finisher
The Winter SwordBookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.
