They who do not understand that a man may be brought to hope that which of all things is the most grievous to him, have not observed with sufficient closeness the perversity of the human mind.
— Anthony Trollope
Dance with a girl three times, and if you like the light of her eye and the tone of voice with which she, breathless, answers your little questions about horseflesh and music about affairs masculine and feminine, then take the leap in the dark.
It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution.
But then in novels the most indifferent hero comes out right at last. Some god comes out of a theatrical cloud and leaves the poor devil ten thousand-a-year and a title.
Poverty, to be picturesque, should be rural. Suburban misery is as hideous as it is pitiable.
My sweetheart is to me more than a coined hemisphere.
This at least should be a rule through the letter-writing world: that no angry letter be posted till four-and-twenty hours will have elapsed since it was written.
A man's love, till it has been chastened and fastened by the feeling of duty which marriage brings with it, is instigated mainly by the difficulty of pursuit.
It is the test of a novel writer's art that he conceal his snake-in-the-grass; but the reader may be sure that it is always there.
And though it is much to be a nobleman, it is more to be a gentleman.
I have no ambition to surprise my reader. Castles with unknown passages are not compatible with my homely muse.
It is self-evident that at sixty-five a man has done all that he is fit to do.
Cham is the only thing to screw one up when one is down a peg.
It is necessary to get a lot of men together, for the show of the thing, otherwise the world will not believe. That is the meaning of committees. But the real work must always be done by one or two men.
There is no road to wealth so easy and respectable as that of matrimony.
Never think that you're not good enough. A man should never think that. People will take you very much at your own reckoning.
I doubt whether any girl would be satisfied with her lover's mind if she knew the whole of it.
I do not know whether there be, as a rule, more vocal expression of the sentiment of love between a man and a woman, than there is between two thrushes. They whistle and call to each other, guided by instinct rather than by reason.
The true picture of life as it is, if it could be adequately painted, would show men what they are, and how they might rise, not, indeed to perfection, but one step first, and then another on the ladder.
A fellow oughtn't to let his family property go to pieces.
When the ivy has found its tower, when the delicate creeper has found its strong wall, we know how the parasite plants grow and prosper.
When it comes to money nobody should give up anything.
In these days a man is nobody unless his biography is kept so far posted up that it may be ready for the national breakfast-table on the morning after his demise.
High rank and soft manners may not always belong to a true heart.
A woman's life is not perfect or whole till she has added herself to a husband. Nor is a man's life perfect or whole till he has added to himself a wife.
What is there that money will not do?
There is no human bliss equal to twelve hours of work with only six hours in which to do it.
A husband is very much like a house or a horse.
It has become a certainty now that if you will only advertise sufficiently you may make a fortune by selling anything.
Neither money nor position can atone to me for low birth.
It is hard to rescue a man from the slough of luxury and idleness combined. If anything can do it, it is a cradle filled annually.
As to happiness in this life it is hardly compatible with that diminished respect which ever attends the relinquishing of labour.
It is a comfortable feeling to know that you stand on your own ground. Land is about the only thing that can't fly away.
It has been the great fault of our politicians that they have all wanted to do something.
I do like a little romance... just a sniff, as I call it, of the rocks and valleys. Of course, bread-and-cheese is the real thing. The rocks and valleys are no good at all, if you haven't got that.
It has now become the doctrine of a large clan of politicians that political honesty is unnecessary, slow, subversive of a man's interests, and incompatible with quick onward movement.
An author must be nothing if he do not love truth; a barrister must be nothing if he do.
Passionate love, I take it, rarely lasts long, and is very troublesome while it does last. Mutual esteem is very much more valuable.
Wine is valued by its price, not its flavour.
It is a grand thing to rise in the world. The ambition to do so is the very salt of the earth. It is the parent of all enterprise, and the cause of all improvement.
Oxford is the most dangerous place to which a young man can be sent.
When men think much, they can rarely decide.
I ain't a bit ashamed of anything.
Since woman's rights have come up a young woman is better able to fight her own battle.
When a man is ill nothing is so important to him as his own illness.
I think the greatest rogues are they who talk most of their honesty.
I never knew a government yet that wanted to do anything.
There are some achievements which are never done in the presence of those who hear of them. Catching salmon is one, and working all night is another.
Book love... is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures.
A man's mind will very gradually refuse to make itself up until it is driven and compelled by emergency.
