Ann Radcliffe - The Mysteries of Udolpho (Part II) (Dodo Press) (1794)

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What are riches — grandeur — health itself, to the luxury of a pure conscience, the health of the soul; — and what the sufferings of poverty, disappointment, despair — to the anguish of an afflicted one!

Ann Radcliffe
Celestial sounds have sometimes been heard on earth.

Ann Radcliffe
When one can hear people moving, one does not so much mind, about one's fears.

Ann Radcliffe
I never trust people's assertions, I always judge of them by their actions.

Ann Radcliffe
There is some comfort in dying surrounded by one's children.

Ann Radcliffe
And since, in our passage through this world, painful circumstances occur more frequently than pleasing ones, and since our sense of evil is, I fear, more acute than our sense of good, we become the victims of our feelings, unless we can in some degree command them.

Ann Radcliffe
But St. Aubert had too much good sense to prefer a charm to a virtue.

Ann Radcliffe
Do you believe your heart to be, indeed, so hardened, that you can look without emotion on the suffering, to which you would condemn me?

Ann Radcliffe
How despicable is that humanity, which can be contented to pity, where it might assuage!

Ann Radcliffe
If the weak hand, that has recorded this tale, has, by its scenes, beguiled the mourner of one hour of sorrow, or, by its moral, taught him to sustain it — the effort, however humble, has not been vain, nor is the writer unrewarded.

Ann Radcliffe
Such is the inconsistency of real love, that it is always awake to suspicion, however unreasonable; always requiring new assurances from the object of its interest.

Ann Radcliffe
The passions are the seeds of vices as well as of virtues, from which either may spring, accordingly as they are nurtured. Unhappy they who have never been taught the art to govern them!

Ann Radcliffe
Fate sits on these dark battlements and frowns,
And as the portal opens to receive me,
A voice in hollow murmurs through the courts
Tells of a nameless deed.

Ann Radcliffe
When the mind has once begun to yield to the weakness of superstition, trifles impress it with the force of conviction.

Ann Radcliffe
I tasted too what was called the sweet of revenge — but it was transient, it expired even with the object, that provoked it.

Ann Radcliffe
Though the vicious can sometimes pour affliction upon the good, their power is transient and their punishment certain; and that innocence, though oppressed by injustice, shall, supported by patience, finally triumph over misfortune!

Ann Radcliffe
Surely, said she, there is some magic in wealth, which can thus make persons pay their court to it, when it does not even benefit themselves. How strange it is, that a fool or a knave, with riches, should be treated with more respect by the world, than a good or wise man in poverty!

Ann Radcliffe
Poverty cannot deprive us of many consolations. It cannot rob us of the affection we have for each other, or degrade us in our own opinion, of in that of any person, whose opinion we ought to value.

Ann Radcliffe
One act of beneficence, one act of real usefulness, is worth all the abstract sentiment in the world. Sentiment is a disgrace, instead of an ornament, unless it lead us to good actions.

Ann Radcliffe
The world ridicules a passion which it seldom feels; its scenes, and its interests, distract the mind, deprave the taste, corrupt the heart, and love cannot exist in a heart that has lost the meek dignity of innocence.

Ann Radcliffe
Virtue and taste are nearly the same, for virtue is little more than active taste, and the most delicate affections of each combine in real love.

Ann Radcliffe
The refreshing pleasure from the first view of nature, after the pain of illness, and the confinement of a sick-chamber, is above the conceptions, as well as the descriptions, of those in health.

Ann Radcliffe
What has a man's face to do with his character? Can a man of good character help having a disagreeable face?

Ann Radcliffe
It is dismal coming home, when there is nobody to welcome one!

Ann Radcliffe