Anthony Trollope Quotes

345 Sourced Quotes

An enemy might at any time become a friend, but while an enemy was an enemy he should be trodden on and persecuted.

Anthony Trollope
Would that be justice, ladies? asked the just man.
It would be success, Mr. Low, — which is a great deal the better thing of the two.

Anthony Trollope
Of all hatreds that the world produces, a wife's hatred for her husband, when she does hate him, is the strongest.

Anthony Trollope
The double pleasure of pulling down an opponent, and of raising oneself, is the charm of a politician's life.

Anthony Trollope
Now a conjuror is I think a very pleasant fellow to have among us, if we know that he is a conjuror; — but a conjuror who is believed to do his tricks without sleight of hand is a dangerous man.

Anthony Trollope
I always thought there was very little wit wanted to make a fortune in the City.

Anthony Trollope
When two foes meet together in the same Chamber, one of whom advocates the personal government of an individual ruler, and the other that from of State, which has come to be called a Red Republic, they deal, no doubt, weighty blows of oratory at each other, but blows which never hurt at the moment. They may cut each other's throats if they can find an opportunity; but they do not bite each other like dogs over a bone. But when opponents are almost in accord, as is always the case with our parliamentary gladiators, they are ever striving to give maddening little wounds through the joints of the harness.

Anthony Trollope
The sober devil can hide his cloven hoof; but when the devil drinks he loses his cunning and grows honest.

Anthony Trollope
When you have done the rashest thing in the world it is very pleasant to be told that no man of spirit could have acted otherwise.

Anthony Trollope
Why should he do it at all? asked Phineas.
That's what everybody asks, but the answer seems to be so plain! Because he can do it, and we can't.

Anthony Trollope
Men who cannot believe in the mystery of our Saviour's redemption can believe that spirits from the dead have visited them in a stranger's parlour, because they see a table shake and do not know how it is shaken; because they hear a rapping on a board, and cannot see the instrument that raps it; because they are touched in the dark, and do not know the hand that touches them.

Anthony Trollope
Some people fall to their feet like cats; but you are one of those who never fall at all. Others tumble about in the most unfortunate way, without any great fault of their own.

Anthony Trollope
I would recommend all men in choosing a profession to avoid any that may require an apology at every turn; either an apology or else a somewhat violent assertion of right.

Anthony Trollope
She was as one who, in madness, was resolute to throw herself from a precipice, but to whom some remnant of sanity remained which forced her to seek those who would save her from herself.

Anthony Trollope
My belief of book writing is much the same as my belief as to shoemaking. The man who will work the hardest at it, and will work with the most honest purpose, will work the best.

Anthony Trollope
But then in novels the most indifferent hero comes out right at last. Some god comes out of a theatrical cloud and leaves the poor devil ten thousand-a-year and a title.

Anthony Trollope
Money is neither god nor devil, that it should make one noble and another vile. It is an accident, and if honestly possessed, may pass from you to me, or from me to you, without a stain.

Anthony Trollope
But the prospect of an explanation, — or otherwise of a flight, — between two leading politicians will fill the House; and any allusion to our Eastern Empire will certainly empty it.

Anthony Trollope
A novel can hardly be made interesting or successful without love…It is necessary because the passion is one which interests or has interested all. Everyone feels it, has felt it, or expects to feel it.

Anthony Trollope
She well knew the great architectural secret of decorating her constructions, and never descended to construct a decoration.

Anthony Trollope
A man's mind will very generally refuse to make itself up until it be driven and compelled by emergency.

Anthony Trollope
It had at this time become my custom... to write with my watch before me, and to require from myself 250 words every quarter of an hour. I have found that the 250 words have been forthcoming as regularly as my watch went.

Anthony Trollope
I am ready to obey as a child; — but, not being a child, I think I ought to have a reason.

Anthony Trollope
To oblige a friend by inflicting an injury on his enemy is often more easy than to confer a benefit on the friend himself.

Anthony Trollope
But he could stand up with unabashed brow and repeat with enduring audacity the same words a dozen times over — The prosperity of England depends on the Church of her people. Had he been asked whether the prosperity which he promised was temporal or spiritual in its nature, not only would he not have answered, but he would not in the least have understood the question.

Anthony Trollope
But how shall I excuse it? There are things done which are as holy as the heavens, — which are clear before God as the light of the sun, which leave no stain on the conscience, and which yet the malignity of man can invest with the very blackness of hell!

Anthony Trollope
The girl can look forward to little else than the chance of having a good man for her husband; — a good man, or if her tastes lie in that direction, a rich man.

Anthony Trollope
The habit of reading is the only one I know in which there is no alloy. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will be there to support you when all other resources are gone. It will be present to you when the energies of your body have fallen away from you. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.

Anthony Trollope
Each thought himself, especially since this last promotion, to be indispensably necessary to the formation of London society, and was comfortable in the conviction that he had thoroughly succeeded in life by acquiring the privilege of sitting down to dinner three times a week with peers and peeresses.

Anthony Trollope
Of course, Lady Arabella could not suckle the young heir herself. Ladies Arabella never can. They are gifted with the powers of being mothers, but not nursing mothers. Nature gives them bosoms for show, but not for use. So Lady Arabella had a wet-nurse.

Anthony Trollope