Quotes from Ford Madox Ford

A gentleman in those days consulted his heirs about tree planting. Should you plant a group of copper beeches against a group of white maples over against the ha-ha a quarter of a mile from the house so that the contrast seen from the ball-room windows should be agreeable—in thirty years' time? In those days thought, in families, went in periods of thirty years, owner gravely consulting heir who should see that development of light and shade that the owner never would.

I HAVE, I am aware, told this story in a very rambling way so that it may be difficult for anyone to find their path through what may be a sort of maze.

I seemed to perceive that my problem - that what I had to do to prepare myself for getting into contact with her, was just to get back into contact with life. I had been kept for twelve years in a rarefied atmosphere; what I then had to do was a little fighting with real life, some wrestling with men of business, some travelling amongst larger cities, something harsh, something masculine.

You see in such a world as this, an idealist — or perhaps it's only a sentimentalist — must be stoned to death.

I know!' Father Consett said. 'You're a beautiful woman. Some men would say it was a lucky fellow that lived with you. I don't ignore the fact in my cogitation. He'd imagine all sorts of delights to lurk in the shadow of your beautiful hair. And they wouldn't.' Sylvia brought her gaze down from the ceiling and fixed her brown eyes for a moment on the priest, speculatively.

I Tietjens, który nie nienawidziÅ' nikogo, majÄ…c przed sobÄ… prostolinijnego czÅ'owieka typu szkolnego kolegi, zaczÄ…Å' rozmyÅ›la? nad tym, jak to ludzko?? traktowana jednostkowo byÅ'a niemal zawsze sympatyczna, w swej masie zaÅ› stawaÅ'a siÄ™ zjawiskiem ohydnym.

Sylvia was a lady and would not allow herself really to care for the person in the world for whom it would be least decent of her to care...But

Przepraszam, ?e byÅ'am dla pana nieuprzejma. Ale to naprawdÄ™ irytujÄ…ce, ?e stoi siÄ™ jak wypchany królik, podczas gdy m??czyzna odgrywa Prawdziwego D?entelmena, chÅ'odnego i zorganizowanego, z caÅ'Ä… pozÄ… ziemianina i wszystkim.

she had always considered that, far from the world of Ealing and its county councillors who over-ate and neighed like stallions, there were bright colonies of beings, chaste, beautiful in thought, altruist and circumspect. And, till that moment, she had imagined

What did we want with an Empire! It

The novel is a medium of profoundly serious investigation into the human case.

I DON'T KNOW how it is best to put this thing down – whether it would be better to try and tell the story from the beginning, as if it were a story; or whether to tell it from this distance of time, as it reached me from the lips of Leonora or from those of Edward himself.

It is very extraordinary to see the perfect flush of health on her cheeks, to see the lustre of her coiled black hair, the poise of the head upon the neck, the grace of the white hands - and to think that it all means nothing - that it is a picture without a meaning. Yes, it is queer.

Jest pan zadziwiajÄ…cy, jak na m??czyznÄ™, który stara siÄ™ zachowywa? jak ukwiaÅ'!

When, then, a man was deprived of freedom he became like a brute. To

A! TÄ™ wojnÄ™ bÄ™dzie warto zobaczy?... Å»adnego pijanego rzucania siÄ™ do gardeÅ' bandytów-imbecyli... - Moja matka by zwariowaÅ'a! - powiedziaÅ'a Sylwia. - Bynajmniej - odparÅ'. - To jÄ… podnieci, o ile do?yje.

For the first time in his life he dislocated the course of his thoughts to satisfy a longing in someone else.

The beastliness of human nature is always pretty normal. We lie and betray and are wanting in imagination and deceive ourselves, always, at about the same rate.

It was the mentality that obsessed him: the exact mind, the impatience of solecisms and facile generalizations!… A queer catalogue of the charms of one's lady love!… But he wanted to hear her say: "Oh, chuck it, Edith Ethel!" when Edith Ethel Duchemin, now of course Lady Macmaster, quoted some of the opinions expressed in Macmaster's critical monograph about the late Mr Rossetti… How very late now!

A man's books are very much himself.

Yes, society must go on; it must breed, like rabbits. That is what we are here for. But then, I don't like society—much.

One's friends ought to believe that one is a gentleman. Automatically. That is what makes one and them in harmony. Probably your friends are your friends because they look at situations automatically as you look at them…

Then," Father Consett said, "if ye know him so well, Sylvia Satterthwaite, how is it ye can't get on with him better? They say: Tout savoir c'est tout pardonner." "It isn't," Sylvia said. "To know everything about a person is to be bored… bored… bored!

Though I believe you're a good lad. But you're the sort of fellow to set a whole division by the ears… A regular… what's 'is name? A regular Dreyfus!" "Did you think Dreyfus was guilty?" Tietjens asked. "Hang it," the General said, "he was worse than guilty—the sort of fellow you couldn't believe in and yet couldn't prove anything against. The curse of the world...