Quotes from Anthony Hope

I wish you would read a little poetry sometimes. Your ignorance cramps my conversation.

Good families are generally worse than any others.

Telling the truth to people who misunderstand you is generally promoting a falsehood, isn't it?

Unless one is a genius, it is best to aim at being intelligible.

Telling the truth to people who misunderstand you is generally promoting a falsehood, isn't it?

I wish you would read a little poetry sometimes. Your ignorance cramps my conversation.

Rudolf was well-nigh convinced that the man had been on his track: he would make certainty surer. The bold game was always his choice and his delight; this trait he shared with Rupert of Hentzau, and hence arose, I think, the strange secret inclination he had for his unscrupulous opponent.

And the Queen of Ruritania, James?' 'Do not misunderstand me, sir. They could be secretly married — I should say re-married.' 'Yes, certainly, re-married.' 'By a trustworthy priest.' 'You mean an untrustworthy priest?

Well, I take it that when a man comes to die, love is more to him than a kingdom; it may be, if we could see truly, that it is more to him even while he lives.

For my part, if a man must needs be a knave I would have him a debonair knave... It makes your sin no worse as I conceive, to do it à la mode and stylishly.

I have an income nearly sufficient for my wants (no one's income is ever quite sufficient, you know).

There are moments when I dare not think of it, but there are others when I rise in spirit to where she ever dwells; then I can thank God that I love the noblest lady in the world, the most gracious and beautiful, and that there was nothing in my love that made her fall short in her high duty.

God save the King!" Old Sapt's mouth wrinkled into a smile. "God save 'em both!" he whispered.

But if it be never - if I can never hold sweet converse again with her, or look upon her face, or know from her her love; why, then, this side the grave, I will live as becomes the man whom she loves...

A real king's life is perhaps a hard one; but a pretended king's is, I warrant, much harder.

Ah! but a man cannot be held to write down in cold blood the wild and black thoughts that storm his brain when an uncontrolled passion has battered a breach for them. Yet, unless he sets up as a saint, he need not hate himself for them. He is better employed, as it humbly seems to me, in giving thanks that power to resist was given to him ....

It is my belief that, given the necessary physical likeness, it was far easier to pretend to be king of Ruritania than it would have been to personate my next-door neighbor.

For my part, if a man must needs be a knave, I would have him a debonair knave, and I liked Rupert Hentzau better than his long-faced, close-eyed companions.

Yet, unless he sets up as a saint, he need not hate himself for them. He is better employed, as it humbly seems to me, in giving thanks that power to resist was vouchsafed to him, than in fretting over wicked impulses which come unsought and extort an unwilling hospitality from the weakness of our nature.

His foe was folly and his weapon wit.

Unless one is a genius, it is best to aim at being intelligible.

a person with a position in society has responsibilities

Everything depends on the point of view and is rich in varying aspects. A picture is sublime from one corner of the room, a daub from another; a woman's full face may be perfect, her profile a disappointment; above all, what you admire in yourself becomes highly distasteful in your neighbor. The moral is, I suppose, Tolerance; or if not that, something else which has escaped me.

You should always trust a man...just as far as you must.