Elizabeth Gaskell Quotes

We do not look for reason for logic in the passionate entreaties of those who are sick unto death; we are stung with the recollection of a thousand slighted opportunities of fulfilling the wishes of t...

When God gives a blessing to be enjoyed, He gives it with a duty to be done.

When prayers were ended, and his Mother had wished him good-night with that long steady look of hers which conveyed no expression of the tenderness that was in her heart, but yet had all the intensity...

Put in yo'r pipe, and smoke it,

…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 don’t fall on the earth and overwhelm it. [-...

All sorts of thoughts cross one's mind—it depends upon whether one gives them harbour and encouragement

But Mr. Hale resolved that he would not be disturbed by any such nonsensical idea; so he lay awake, determining not to think about it.

But it was no smiling matter to Margaret. She attended to what Mr. Bell was saying. Her thoughts ran upon the Idea, before entertained, but which now had assumed the strength of a conviction, that Mr....

But with the increase of serious and just ground of complaint, a new kind of patience had sprung up in her Mother's mind. She was gentle and quiet in intense bodily suffering, almost in proportion as...

For we have every one of us felt how a very few minutes of the months and years called life, will sometimes suffice to place all time past and future in an entirely new light; will make us see the van...

I did try to remember what you said, and to think more of others, but it is so difficult sometimes [...] live only in trying to do, and to be, as other people like. I don't see any end to it. I might...

I don't mind your calling me a clog, if only we were fastened together.But I do mind you calling me a donkey, he replied.

I have passed out of childhood into old age. I have had no youth - no womanhood; the hopes of womanhood have closed for me - for I shall never marry; and I anticipate cares and sorrows just as if I we...

I read for the same reason that I ate or drank; because it was a real craving of nature. I wrote on the same principle as I spoke—out of the impulse and feelings of the mind; nor could I help it, for...

It is not right to anticipate evil, and to be always looking forward with an apprehensive spirit; but I think grief is a two–edged sword, it cuts both ways; the memory of one loss is the anticipation...

It is right to hope for the best about everybody, and not to expect the worst. This sounds like a truism, but it has comforted me before now, and some day you'll find it useful. One has always to try...

It was one of the faults of her nature to be ready to make any sacrifices for those who loved her, and to value affection almost above its price

La lealtad y la obediencia a la sabiduría y la justicia están bien; pero es aún mejor desafiar el poder arbitrario ejercido de forma injusta y cruel, no en nuestra propia defensa sino en la de otros m...

Let China's earth, enrich'd with colour'd stains,  Pencil'd with gold, and streak'd with azure veins,  The grateful flavour of the Indian leaf,  Or Mocho's sunburnt berry glad receive.' MRS. BARBAULD.

Let us go on and see little Susan, said Margaret, drawing her companion up a grassy road-way, leading under the shadow of a forest glade. With all my heart, though I have not an idea who little Susan...