Hester Thrale Quotes

16 Sourced Quotes

I am perpetually bringing or losing babies, both very dreadful operations to me, and which tear mind and body both in pieces very cruelly.

Hester Thrale
He loved to talk better than to hear, and to dispute better than to please... people generally left the room with a high opinion of that gentleman's parts and a confirmed resolution to avoid his society.

Hester Thrale
Every one in this world has as much as they can do in caring for themselves, and few have leisure really to think of their neighbours distresses, however they may delight their tongues with talking of them.

Hester Thrale
I think character never changes; the Acorn becomes an Oak, which is very little like an Acorn to be sure, but it never becomes an Ash.

Hester Thrale
'Tis never for their wisdom that one loves the wisest, or for their wit that one loves the wittiest; 'tis for benevolence, and virtue, and honest fondness, one loves people; the other qualities make one proud of loving them too.

Hester Thrale
The pleasures of intimacy in friendship depend far more on external circumstances than people of a sentimental turn of mind are willing to concede; and when constant companionship ceases to suit the convenience of both parties, the chances are that it will be dropped on the first favourable opportunity.

Hester Thrale
Miss Owen and Miss Burney asked me if I had never been in love; 'with myself,' said I, 'and most passionately.' When any man likes me I never am surprised, for I think how should he help it? When any man does not like me, I think him a blockhead, and there's an end of the matter.

Hester Thrale
One should know the value of Life better than to pout any part of it away.

Hester Thrale
[Samuel] Johnson's conversation was by much too strong for a person accustomed to obsequiousness and flattery; it was mustard in a young child's mouth!

Hester Thrale
The tree of deepest root is found
Least willing still to quit the ground;
'Twas therefore said by ancient sages,
That love of life increased with years.
So much, that in our latter stages,
When pains grow sharp and sickness rages,
The greatest love of life appears.

Hester Thrale
Let dullness have its due: and remember that if life and conversation are happily compared to a bowl of punch, there must be more water in it than spirit, acid, or sugar.

Hester Thrale
A physician can sometimes parry the scythe of death, but has no power over the sand in the hourglass.

Hester Thrale
We look on those approaching the banks of a river all must cross, with ten times the interest they excited when dancing in the meadow.

Hester Thrale
Women bear Crosses better than Men do, but bear Surprizes – worse.

Hester Thrale
If truth can be found in any sublunary science, numbers will produce it, for to that at last almost all other sciences refer for confirmation.

Hester Thrale
No companion however wise, no friend however useful, can be to me what my mother has been: her image will long pursue my fancy; her voice for ever hang in my ears: may her precepts but sink into my heart!

Hester Thrale