“For I see that then I was still all in a state of innocence, but that innocence, once lost, is lost forever.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“A man may be accused of cowardice for fleeing away from all manner of physical dangers but when things supernatural, insubstantial and inexplicable threaten not only his safety and well-being but his sanity, his innermost soul, then retreat is not a sign of weakness but the most prudent course.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“I have sat here at my desk, day after day, night after night, a blank sheet of paper before me, unable to lift my pen, trembling and weeping too.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“My head reeled at the sheer and startling beauty, the wide, bare openness of it. The sense of space, the vastness of the sky above and on either side made my heart race, I would have travelled a thousand miles to see this. I had never imagined such a place.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“Whatever was about, whoever I had seen, and heard rocking, and who had passed me by just now, whoever had opened the locked door was not 'real'. No. But what was 'real'? At that moment I began to doubt my own reality.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“I had always known in my heart that the experience would never leave me, that it was now woven into my very fibers, an inextricable part of my past, but I had hoped never to have to recollect it, consciously, and in full, ever again. Like an old wound, it gave off a faint twinge now and again, but less and less often, less and less painfully, as the years went on and my happiness, sanity and equilibrium were assured. Of late, it had been like the outermost ripple on a pool, merely the faint memory of a memory.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“For a long time, I did not move from the dark, wood-panelled hall. I wanted company, and I had none, lights and warmth and a strong drink inside me, I needed reassurance. But, more than anything else, I needed an explanation. It is remarkable how powerful a force simple curiosity can be. I had never realized that before now. In spite of my intense fear and sense of shock, I was consumed with the desire to find out exactly who it was that I had seen, and how, I could not rest until I had settled the business, for all that, while out there, I had not dared to stay and make any investigations.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“No, no, you have none of you any idea. This is all nonsense, fantasy, it is not like this. Nothing so blood-curdling and becreepered and crude - not so...so laughable. The truth is quite other, and altogether more terrible.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“(...) człowiek nie może pozostawać bez końca w stanie wielkiego przerażenia. Albo emocje rosną do tego stopnia, ze pod naciskiem coraz okropniejszych wypadków i skojarzeń ono ogarnia go tak bardzo, że ucieka bądź popada w szaleństwo. Lu też wewnętrzne poruszenie zacznie go stopniowo opuszczać, ustępując miejsca rosnącemu opanowaniu.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“It was true that the ghastly sounds I had heard through the fog had greatly upset me but far worse was what emanated from and surrounded these things and arose to unsteady me, an atmosphere, a force - I do not exactly know what to call it - of evil and uncleanness, of terror and suffering, of malevolence and bitter anger”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“Można oskarżyć człowieka o tchórzostwo, jeśli ucieka przed wszelkiego rodzaju fizycznymi zagrożeniami. Ale gdy już nie tylko jego bezpieczeństwu i dobremu samopoczuciu, ale wręcz jego zdrowiu i jego najtajniejszemu jestestwu zaczynają zagrażać zjawiska nadprzyrodzone, bezcielesne i niewytłumaczalne, wtedy odwrót jest oznaką nie słabości, ale tego, że wybrał rozsądną linię postępowania.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“I did not look about me, though sometimes I glanced up into the great bowl of the night sky and at the constellations scattered there and the sight was comforting and calming to me, things in the heavens seemed still to be aright and unchanged. But nothing else was, within me or all around. I knew now that I had entered some hitherto unimagined - indeed, unbelieved-in - realm of consciousness, that coming to this place had already changed me and that there was no going back.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“I knew him the least well, understood him scarcely at all, felt uneasy in his presence, and yet perhaps in a strange way loved him more deeply than any.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“She had a ghostly pallor and a dreadful expression, she wore clothes that were out of keeping with the styles of the present-day; she had kept her distance from me and she had not spoken. Something emanating from her still, silent presence, in each case by a grave, had communicated itself to me so strongly that I had felt indescribable repulsion and fear. And she had appeared and then vanished in a way that surely no real, living, fleshly human being could possibly manage to do. And”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“he told me, married and with a child of his own.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“It was nine-thirty on Christmas Eve. As I crossed the long entrance hall of Monk’s Piece on my way from the dining room, where we had just enjoyed the first of the happy, festive meals, toward the drawing room and the fire around which my family were now assembled, I paused and then, as I often do in the course of an evening, went to the front door, opened it and stepped outside.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“I was still all in a state of innocence, but that innocence once lost, is lost forever.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“Suggested Reading Louis Bayard, The Black Tower; Sarah Blake, Grange House; F. G. Cottam, The House of Lost Souls; Michael Cox, The Glass of Time; Mark Frost, The List of Seven; John Harwood, The Ghost Writer; Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“I do not believe I have ever again slept so well as I did that night in the inn at Crythin Gifford. For I see that then I was still all in a state of innocence, but that innocence, once lost, is lost forever.”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“...I was forced to live through it all, every minute and then every day thereafter...”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“I had been right, this was just the sort of place where superstition and tittle-tattle were rife, and even allowed to hold sway over commonsense. Now,”
― Susan Hill, quote from The Woman in Black
“That even under the gospel of peace and reconciliation by Christ (of which the intercession of Moses was typical) the moral law should continue to bind believers.”
― Matthew Henry, quote from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible
“When you're scared you can either give in to the panic and let your mind fall apart, or you can take charge of your mind and think brave.”
― John Marsden, quote from The Dead of Night
“Yes, the sound of water, the voice of the wind - completely foreign to human passions. All the other sounds of this earth brought contamination to the solitude of a soul.”
― Joseph Conrad, quote from Under Western Eyes
“Huffing in annoyance at the interruption, not only at Charlie, but at herself for being annoyed with Charlie, Ari nodded. “Jai, I command you to be able to talk again. Or whatever.” He made a face at the ‘or whatever’ part and cleared his throat. “I… great, I can talk again.” “Well.” Charlie shrugged. “Paradise could only last so long, right.” Getting up from the table, shaking a little at her unraveling, Ari cuffed Charlie across the head. “Be nice.” “Tell him to be nice!” “I can’t,” she snorted, looking back over her shoulder at them. “If I did that he’d actually have to be nice… it would be like re-writing his entire personality.” Jai grunted. “Funny.” Charlie chuckled. “I thought so.”
― Samantha Young, quote from Smokeless Fire
“He looked at her for a moment, amazed. "How did you know that? How can a servant girl like you understand so much?"
Because self-absorbed man-children are common as weeds, thought Mary. But she said, "I don't know, sir. I only guessed.”
― Y.S. Lee, quote from The Traitor in the Tunnel
BookQuoters 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.
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