Quotes from Anthony Trollope

It was a beautiful summer afternoon, at that delicious period of the year when summer has just burst forth from the growth of spring; when the summer is yet but three days old, and all the various shades of green which nature can put forth are still in their unsoiled purity of freshness.

A man who desires to soften another man's heart, should always abuse himself. In softening a woman's heart, he should abuse her.

Of course he had committed forgery;--of course he had committed robbery. That, indeed, was nothing, for he had been cheating and forging and stealing all his life.

They say that faint heart never won fair lady. It is amazing to me how fair ladies are won, so faint are often men's hearts!

Jacob was not in such a hurry when he wished for Rachel." "That was all very well for an old patriarch who had seven or eight hundred years to live." "My dear John, you forget your Bible. Jacob did not live half as long as that.

He's a very handsome man, is the captain, said Jeaneatte. . . You shouldn't think about handsome men, child, said Mrs. Greenow. And I'm sure I don't, said Jeanette. Not more than anybody else; but if a man is handsome, ma'am, why, it stands to reason that he is handsome.

Wine is a dangerous thing, and should not be made the exponent of truth, let the truth be good as it may; but it has the merit of forcing a man to show his true colors.

Wars about trifles are always bitter, especially among neighbours. When the differences are great, and the parties comparative strangers, men quarrel with courtesy. What combatants are ever so eager as two brothers?

A clergyman generally dislikes to be met in argument by any scriptural quotation; he feels as affronted as a doctor does, when recommended by an old woman to take some favourite dose

In such families as [Nidderdale's], when such results have been achieved, it is generally understood that matters shall be put right by an heiress. [....] Rank squanders money; trade makes it; -- and then trade purchases rank by re-gilding its splendour

A man has usually to work through much mud before he gets his nugget.

What had passed between Eleanor Harding and Mary Bold need not be told. It is indeed a matter of thankfulness that neither the historian nor the novelist hears all that is said by their heroes or heroines, or how would three volumes or twenty suffice!

She was not softly delicate in all her ways; but in disposition and temper she was altogether generous. I do not know that she was at all points a lady, but had Fate so willed it she would have been a thorough gentleman.

He (The warden) was painfully afraid of a disagreement with any person in any subject....he felt horror at the thought of being made the subject of common gossip and public criticism.

Mrs Draper took this as an order for her departure, and crept silently out of the room, closing the door behind her with the long protracted elaborate click which is always produced by an attempt at silence on such occasions.

Buying and selling is good and necessary; it is very necessary, and may, possibly, be very good; but it cannot be the noblest work of man; and let us hope that it may not in our time be esteemed the noblest work of an Englishman.

On Charles Dickens) It has been the peculiarity and the marvel of this man's power, that he has invested his puppets with a charm that has enabled him to dispense with human nature.

There are men whose energies hardly ever carry them beyond looking for the thing they want.

There are moments in which stupid people say clever things, obtuse people say sharp things, and good-natured people say ill-natured things.

A liar has many points to his favour,—but he has this against him, that unless he devote more time to the management of his lies than life will generally allow, he cannot make them tally.

Book love, my friend, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will support you when all other recreations are gone. It will last until your death. It will make your hours pleasant t you as long as you live.

What on earth could be more luxurious than a sofa, a book, and a cup of coffee?

He had a pride in being a poor man of a high family; he had a pride in repudiating the very family of which he was proud; and he had a special pride in keeping his pride silently to himself.

Lovers with all the glories and all the graces are supposed to be plentiful as blackberries by girls of nineteen, but have been proved to be rare hothouse fruits by girls of twenty-nine.