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Elizabeth Gaskell -
North and South (1854)
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But with the increase of serious and just ground of complaint, a new kind of patience had sprung up in her Mother's mind. She was gentle and quiet in intense bodily suffering, almost in proportion as she had been restless and depressed when there had been no real cause for grief.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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I value my own independence so highly that I can fancy no degradation greater than that of having another man perpetually directing and advising and lecturing me, or even planning too closely in any way about my actions. He might be the wisest of men, or the most powerful—I should equally rebel and resent his interference...
Elizabeth Gaskell
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What other people may think of the rightness or wrongness is nothing in comparison to my own deep knowledge, my innate conviction that it was wrong.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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I know you despise me; allow me to say, it is because you don't understand me.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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Yet, even before he left the room, - and certainly, not five minutes after, the clear conviction dawned upon her, shined bright upon her, that he did love her; that he had loved her; that he would love her. And she shrank and shuddered as under the fascination of some great power, repugnant to her whole previous life.She crept away, and hid from his idea. But it was of no use
Elizabeth Gaskell
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It is bad to believe you in error. It would be infinitely worse to have known you a hypocrite.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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God has made us so that we must be mutually dependent. We may ignore our own dependence, or refuse to acknowledge that others depend upon us in more respects than the payment of weekly wages; but the thing must be, nevertheless. Neither you nor any other master can help yourselves. The most proudly independent man depends on those around him for their insensible influence on his character - his life.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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But suppose it was truth double strong, it were no truth to me if I couldna take it in. I daresay there's truth in yon Latin book on your shelves; but it's gibberish and no truth to me, unless I know the meaning o' the words.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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A wise parent humours the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and adviser when his absolute rule shall cease.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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It was her brother,' said Mr. Thornton to himself. 'I am glad.I may never see her again; but it is comfort-a relief-to know that much. I knew she could not be unmaidenly; and yet I yearned for conviction. Now I am glad!' It was a little golden thread running through the dark web of his present fortunes; which were growing ever gloomier and more gloomy.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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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.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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He shook hands with Margaret. He knew it was the first time their hands had met, though she was perfectly unconscious of the fact.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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Of all faults the one she most despised in others was the want of bravery; the meanness of heart which leads to untruth.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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Margaret the Churchwoman, her father the Dissenter, Higgins the Infidel, knelt down together. It did them no harm.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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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.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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She would fain have caught at the skirts of that departing time, and prayed it to return, and give her back what she had too little valued while it was yet in her possession. What a vain show Life seemed! How unsubstantial, and flickering, and flitting! It was as if from some aerial belfry, high up above the stir and jar of the earth, there was a bell continually tolling, 'All are shadows!—all are passing!—all is past!
Elizabeth Gaskell
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I wanted to see the place where Margaret grew to what she is, even at the worst time of all, when I had no hope of ever calling her mine...
Elizabeth Gaskell
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He could not forget the touch of her arms around his neck, impatiently felt as it had been at the time; but now the recollection of her clinging defence of him, seemed to thrill him through and through,—to melt away every resolution, all power of self-control, as if it were wax before a fire.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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Only you're right in saying she's too good an opinion of herself to think of you. The saucy jade! I should like to know where she'd find a better!
Elizabeth Gaskell
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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.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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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.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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But Mr. Hale resolved that he would not be disturbed by any such nonsensical idea; so he lay awake, determining not to think about it.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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He could remember all about it now; the pitiful figure he must have cut; the absurd way in which he had gone and done the very thing he had so often agreed with himself in thinking would be the most foolish thing in the world; and had met with exactly the consequences which, in these wise moods, he had always foretold were certain to follow, if he ever did make such a fool of himself.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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Oh, Mr. Thornton, I am not good enough!' 'Not good enough! Don't mock my own deep feeling of unworthiness.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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But the monotonous life led by invalids often makes them like children, inasmuch as thy have neither of them any sense of proportion in events, and seem each to believe that the walls and curtains which shut in their world, and shut out everything else, must of necessity be larger than anything hidden beyond.
Elizabeth Gaskell
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Quote of the day
In a word I was a pioneer, and therefore had to blaze my own trail.
Marshall Taylor
Elizabeth Gaskell
Creative Commons
Born:
September 29, 1810
Died:
November 12, 1865
(aged 55)
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