Elizabeth Gaskell Quotes

I am not quite the person to decide on another's gentlemanliness, Miss Hale. I mean, I don't quite understand your application of the word. But I should say that this Morison is no true man. I don't k...

Or, in the triumph of the crowded procession, have the helpless been trampled on, instead of being gently lifted aside out of the roadway of the conqueror, whom they have no power to accompany on his...

People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people's minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms a...

So little do we know of the inner truths of the households, where we come and go like intimate guests!) Maggie

Margaret could not help her looks; but the short curled upperlip, the round, massive up-turned chin, the manner of carryingher head, her movements, full of a soft feminine defiance, alwaysgave strange...

Though she knew, and we knew, and she knew that we knew, and we knew that she knew that we knew, she had been busy all the morning making tea-bread and sponge-cakes.

Mr Thornton sighed as he took in all this with one of his sudden comprehensive glances. And then he turned his back to the young ladies, and threw himself, with an effort, but with all his heart and s...

Her mouth was wide; no rosebud that could only open just enough to let out a 'yes' and 'no', and 'an't please you, sir'.

I do try to say, God’s will be done, sir, said the Squire, looking up at Mr. Gibson for the first time, and speaking with more life in his voice; but it’s harder to be resigned than happy people think...

Suspected

Ask , and it shall be given until you. That is no vain or untried promise, Ruth!

But a man mun speak out for the truth, and when I see the world going all wrong at this time o' day, bothering itself wi' things it knows nought about, and leaving undone all the things that lie in di...

Mrs. Thornton; the only mother he has, I believe,

If we do not reverence the past as you do in Oxford, it is because we want something which can apply to the present more directly. It is fine when the study of the past leads to a prophecy of the futu...

Death was as true and as common as poverty; yet people never spoke about that, loud out in the streets.  It was a word not to be mentioned to ears polite. 

When both were seated on a tuft of heather, in some high lonely place,

The contemplation of it, even at this distance of time, has taken away my breath and my grammar, and unless I subdue my emotion, my spelling will go too.

I tell you, I cannot. I could not lead a virtuous life if I would. I should only disgrace you. If you will know all, said she, as he still seemed inclined to urge her, I must have drink. Such as live...

We're like childer, ever wanting what we han not got.

We cannot speak loudly or angrily at such times; we are not apt to be eager about mere worldly things, for our very awe at our quickened sense of the nearness of the invisible world, makes us calm and...