Quotes from Elizabeth Gaskell

Madam your wife and I didn't hit it off the only time I ever saw her. I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it wasn't me.

My heart burnt within me with indignation and grief; we could think of nothing else. All night long we had only snatches of sleep, waking up perpetually to the sense of a great shock and grief. Every one is feeling the same. I never knew so universal a feeling.

To be sure a stepmother to a girl is a different thing to a second wife to a man!

He shook hands with Margaret. He knew it was the first time their hands had met, though she was perfectly unconscious of the fact.

Wearily she went to bed, wearily she arose in four or five hours' time. But with the morning came hope, and a brighter view of things.

Margaret the Churchwoman, her father the Dissenter, Higgins the Infidel, knelt down together. It did them no harm.

But the trees were gorgeous in their autumnal leafiness - the warm odours of flowers and herb came sweet upon the sense.

I would not trust a mouse to a woman if a man's judgment could be had.

Trust a girl of sixteen for knowing well if she is pretty; concerning her plainness she may be ignorant.

Madam your wife and I didn't hit it off the only time I ever saw her. I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it wasn't me.

A little credulity helps one on through life very smoothly.

He loved her, and would love her; and defy her, and this miserable bodily pain.

A great matter calls her son with terms like deal, and love.

A girl in love will do a good deal.

She never called her son by any name but John; 'love' and 'dear', and such like terms, were reserved for Fanny.

I am the mother that bore you, and your sorrow is my agony; and if you don't hate her, i do' Then, mother, you make me love her more. She is unjustly treated by you, and I must make the balance even.

Similarity of opinion is not always—I think not often—needed for fullness and perfection of love.

..still to have loved her without return would have lifted you higher than all those, be they who they may, that have ever known her to love.

Don't be afraid," she said, coldly, " as far as love may go she may be worthy of you. It must have taken a good deal to overcome her pride. Don't be afraid, John.

How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly!

Of all faults the one she most despised in others was the want of bravery; the meanness of heart which leads to untruth.

To be sure a stepmother to a girl is a different thing to a second wife to a man!

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.

A man is so in the way in the house.