Quotes by 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 eart...”

“One word more. You look as if you thought it tainted you to beloved by me. You cannot avoid it. Nay, I, if I would, cannotcleanse you from it. But I would not, if I could. I have neverloved any wom...”

“I wanted to see the place where Margaret grew to what she is, even at the worst time of all, when I had no hope of ever calling her mine.”

“Take care. If you do not speak I shall claim you as my own in some strange presumptuous way. Send me away at once, if I must go; Margaret! ”

“I have never seen mountains before, and they fill me and oppress me so much that I could not sleep; I must keep awake this first night, and see that they dont fall on the earth and overwhelm it." [...”

“The temptation is too strong for me. Oh, Lord! where is Thy peace that I believed in, in my childhood? that I hear people speaking of now, as if it hushed up the troubles of life, and had not to b...”

“...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 ...”

“Thus, you see, he arrived at the same end, via supposed duty, that he was previously pledged to via interest. I fancy a good number of us, when any line of action will promote our own interest, can...”

“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.”

“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.”

“I'll not listen to reason... reason always means what someone else has got to say.”

“What do you expectnot indifference or ingratitude? (-Miss Benson) It is better not to expect or calculate consequences. The longer I live, the more fully I see that. Let us try simply to do right a...”

“But suppose it was truth double strong, it were no truth to me if I couldna take it in. I daresay there's truth in yon Latin book on your shelves; but it's gibberish and no truth to me, unless I kn...”

“In the first place, Cranford is in possession of the Amazons; all the holders of houses above a certain rent are women. If a married couple come to settle in the town, somehow the gentleman disappe...”

“He may care for her, though she really has been almost rude to him at times. But she! why, Margaret would never think of him, Im sure! Such a thing has never entered her head.""Entering her heart ...”

“Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.”

“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 ...”

“I value my ownindependence so highly that I can fancy no degradation greater than thatof having another man perpetually directing and advising and lecturingme, or even planning too closely in any w...”

“Miss Benson had the power; which some people have, of carrying her wishes through to fulfillment; her will was strong, her sense was excellent, and people yielded to her they did not know why.”

“Miss Jenkyns wore a cravat, and a little bonnet like a jockey-cap, and altogether had the appearance of a strong-minded woman; although she would have despised the modern idea of women being equal ...”