“He Looked and smelt like Autumn's very brother, his face being sunburnt to wheat-colour, his eyes blue as corn-flowers, his sleeves and leggings dyed with fruit-stains, his hands clammy with the sweet juice of apples, his hat sprinkled with pips, and everywhere about him the sweet atmosphere of cider which at its first return each season has such an indescribable fascination for those who have been born and bred among the orchards.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“...Nameless, unknown to me as you were, I couldn't forget your voice!'
'For how long?'
'O - ever so long. Days and days.'
'Days and days! Only days and days? O, the heart of a man! Days and days!'
'But, my dear madam, I had not known you more than a day or two. It was not a full-blown love - it was the merest bud - red, fresh, vivid, but small. It was a colossal passion in embryo. It never returned.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“Such miserable creatures of circumstance are we all!”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“For the love of men like Fitzpiers is unquestionably of such quality as to bear division and transference. He had indeed once declared, though not to her, that on one occasion he had noticed himself to be possessed by five distinct infatuations at the same time. If this were true, his differed from the highest affection as the lower orders of the animal world differ from advanced organisms, partition causing not death but a multiplied existence.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“There was now a distinct manifestation of morning in the air, and presently the bleared white visage of a sunless winter day emerged like a dead-born child.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“She looked towards the western sky, which was now aglow like some vast foundry wherein new worlds were cast”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“She saw nothing of Winterborne during he days of her recovery: and perhaps on that account her fancy wove about him a more romantic tissue than it could have done if he had stood before her with all the specks and flaws inseparable from concrete humanity”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“The physiognomy of a deserted highway expresses solitude to a degree that is not reached by mere dales or downs, and bespeaks a tomb-like stillness more emphatic than that of glades and pools. The contrast of what is with what might be, probably accounts for this.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“She showed that oblique-mannered softness which is perhaps more frequent in women of darker complexion and more lymphatic temperament than Mrs. Charmond’s was; women who lingeringly smile their meanings to men rather than speak to them, who inveigle rather than prompt, and take advantage of currents rather than steer.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“Her face had the usual fulness of expression which is developed by a life of solitude. Where the eyes of a multitude continuously beat like waves upon a countenance they seem to wear away its mobile power ; but in the still water of privacy every feeling and sentiment unfolds in visible luxuriance, to be interpreted as readily as a printed word by an intruder. In years she was no more than nineteen or twenty, but the necessity of taking thought at a too early period of life had forced the provisional curves of her childhood's face to a premature finality.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“It often happens that in situations of unrestraint, where there is no thought of the eye of criticism, real feeling glides into a mode of manifestation not easily distinguishable from rodomontade. A veneer of affectation overlies a bulk of truth, with the evil consequence, if perceived, that the substance is estimated by the superficies, and the whole rejected.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“She could not explain the subtleties of her feeling as clearly as he could state his opinion, even though she had skill in speech, and her father had none.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“On older trees still than these huge lobes of fungi grew like lungs. Here, as everywhere, the Unfulfilled Intention, which makes life what it is, was as obvious as it could be among the depraved crowds of a city slum. The leaf was deformed....the taper was interrupted..and the ivy slowly strangled to death the promising sapling.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“The petulance that relatives show towards each other is in truth directed against that intangible Causality which has shaped the situation no less for the offenders than the offended, but is too elusive to be discerned and cornered by poor humanity in irritated mood.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“Why - what the name - began her father. I thought you went out to get the parsley!”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“-Ahora, mi amor- murmuró-, eres mío y sólo mío porque ella al fin se ha olvidado de ti, a pesar de que murieras por ella. Pero cada vez que yo me levante pensaré en ti y cada vez que me vaya a dormir volveré a pensar en ti.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“Anche tra gli individui più soggetti agli sbalzi d'umore, l'inclinazione a rincuorarsi appare più forte di quella a deprimersi; e il peso specifico dell'anima invariabilmente si conferma inferiore rispetto a quello del mare di angosce in cui essa è precipitata.”
― Thomas Hardy, quote from The Woodlanders
“She had turned away and was watching a duck out on the lake. It was tucking into weeds, a thing I've never been able to understand anyone wanting to do. Though I suppose, if you face it squarely, they're no worse than spinach.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, quote from Right Ho, Jeeves
“It always looked to me like she was smiling. In fact, I know she was. Lots if things smile, like a flower to the sun. And one thing sure. I knew that just like I could smile to see Pinky, she sure could smile to see me.”
― Robert Newton Peck, quote from A Day No Pigs Would Die
“You're the most important person in my life," I said.
He didn't say anything.
"You're my brother," I said.
He didn't say anything.
"I love you, you little ratbag," I said.
He smiled, snuggled down in the bed, and closed his eyes.”
― John Marsden, quote from While I Live
“«Lo fai di continuo» osservò Strider, riscuotendo Sabin dalle sue cupe riflessioni.
«Che cosa?» chiese Gwen. Aveva una voce un po' rauca e affannosa; all'inizio pensava che quel timbro fosse dovuto alla fatica, ma ora lo trovava incredibilmente sexy.
«Guardare Sabin. Ti interessa?»
«Certo che no!» rispose lei con foga.
Sabin cercò di non aggrottare la fronte. Avrebbe preferito una breve esitazione, invece di quella risposta veemente e immediata.
«Invece credo che ti interessi» ridacchiò Strider. «Farei un favore a entrambi se ti facessi cambiare idea su di lui.»”
― Gena Showalter, quote from The Darkest Whisper
“I know girls who pine for it. They like to play dress-up and pretend being Vor ladies of old, rescued from menace by romantic Vor youths. For some reason they never play 'dying in childbirth', or 'vomiting your guts out from the red dysentery', or 'weaving till you go blind and crippled from arthritis and dye poisoning', or 'infanticide'. Well, they do die romantically of disease sometimes, but somehow it's always an illness that makes you interestingly pale and everyone sorry and doesn't involve losing bowel control.”
― Lois McMaster Bujold, quote from Komarr
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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