John Galsworthy

“ Fools! A man was as old as his legs and arms, and not a day younger.
"I don't believe in believing things because one wants to."
Though she had been told that he was not to come, instinct had kept her there; or the pathetic, aching hope against hope which lovers never part with.
Full of who knows what contempt of age for youth; and youth for age; the old man resenting this young pup's aspiration to his granddaughter; the young man annoyed that this old image had dragged him away before he wished to go.
LINES FROM THE TEXT: "Are you sure you ought, sir?"—"No, but I'm going to." ”

“ Your sister, sir, is trying the wings of her spirit, out of the old slave market. For women as for men, there's more than one kind of dishonour, Captain Huntingdon, and worse things than being dead.
Do you know, Clare, I think it's awful about you! You're too fine, and not fine enough, to put up with things; you're too sensitive to take help, and you're not strong enough to do without it. ”

“ The irritation of one accustomed to have his way was, roused against he knew not what.
We are, of course, all of us the slaves of property, and I admit that it's a question of degree, but what I call a 'Forsyte' is a man who is decidedly more than less a slave of property. He knows a good thing, he knows a safe thing, and his grip on property—it doesn't matter whether it be wives, houses, money, or reputation—is his hall-mark."—"Ah!" ”

“ It has always been my, belief that a man must neither beg anything of a woman, nor force anything from her. Women are generous—they will give you what they can.
Has it ever struck you that each one of us lives on the edge of a volcano? There is, I imagine, no one who has not some affection or interest so strong that he counts the rest for nothing, beside it. ”

“ Hussell Barter, with that touching look to be seen on the faces of many English ladies, that look of women who are always doing their duty, their rather painful duty; whose eyes, above cheeks creased and withered, once rose-leaf hued, now over-coloured by strong weather, are starry and anxious; whose speech is simple, sympathetic, direct, a little shy, a little hopeless, yet always hopeful; who are ever surrounded by children, invalids, old people, all looking to them for support; who have never known the luxury of breaking down. ”

“ If geological time be taken as twenty-four hours, man's existence on earth so far equals just two seconds of it; after a few more seconds, when man has been frozen off the earth, geological time will stretch for as long again, before the earth bumps into something, and be comes nebula once more. God's hands haven't been particularly full, sir, have they— two seconds out of twenty-four hours—if man is His pet concern?
"People do not like you to be different. If ever in your life you act differently from others, you will find it so, mademoiselle." ”

“ The life of men in crowds is mine—of lamplight in the streets at dawn.
[Softly] I have a thousand loves, and never one too long.
There is religion so deep that no man knows what it means. There is religion so shallow, you may have it by turning a handle. We have everything. ”

“ The sentiment that men call honour is of doubtful value
They'll soon have no ankles to reveal
Thinker meditating upon action
Ungovernable itch to be appreciated
Unless—unless they closed their ears, and eyes, and noses
Wanted to be loved, slowly killing the power of loving
When alive, have been served with careless parsimony
You must not laugh at life—that is blasphemy
"You're worth more," muttered Hilary, "than I can ever give you." ”

“ They must go their own ways, poor things! She can't put herself in the child's place, and the child can't put herself in Molly's. A woman and a girl—there's the tree of life between them!
Ashamed? Am I to live all my life like a dead woman because you're ashamed? Am I to live like the dead because you 're a child that knows nothing of life? ”

“ Or was it some glimmering perception of the old Greek saying—'Character is Fate;' some sudden sense of the universal truth that all are in bond to their own natures, and what a man has most desired shall in the end enslave him? ”

“ I am not good for her—it is not good for simple souls to be with those who see things clear. For the great part of mankind, to see anything—is fatal.
To be so near to death has done me good; I shall not lack courage any more till the wind blows on my grave. ”

“ ABOUT CENSORSHIP AND VAGUE THOUGHTS ON ART /gutenberg/etext01/cnart10.txt
PASSAGES FROM THE TEXT: And I agree that this rhythmic relation of part to part, and part to whole—in short, vitality—is the one quality inseparable from a work of Art. For nothing which does not seem to a man possessed of this rhythmic vitality, can ever steal him out of himself.
The active amusements and relaxations of life can only rest certain of our faculties, by indulging others; the whole self is never rested save through that unconsciousness of self, which comes through rapt contemplation of Nature or of Art. ”

“ But in pitying Soames, readers incline, perhaps, to animus against Irene: After all, they think, he wasn't a bad fellow, it wasn't his fault; she ought to have forgiven him, and so on!
"Let the dead Past bury its dead" would be a better saying if the Past ever died. The persistence of the Past is one of those tragi-comic blessings which each new age denies, coming cocksure on to the stage to mouth its claim to a perfect novelty. ”

“ According to you, no one would ever prosecute.
"I shouldn't be surprised if he was tempted."—"Life's one long temptation...."
But is a man to be lost because he is bred and born with a weak character? Gentlemen, men like the prisoner are destroyed daily under our law for want of that human insight which sees them as they are, patients, and not criminals. If the prisoner be found guilty, and treated as though he were a criminal type, he will, as all experience shows, in all probability become one. ”

“ But though the impingement of Beauty and the claims of Freedom on a possessive world are the main prepossessions of the Forsyte Saga, it cannot be absolved from the charge of embalming the upper-middle class. ”

“ And his working coat so ragged that it would never cling to him but for pure affection. — To watch him even now makes one feel how terrible is that dumb grief which has never learned to moan.
Words—those poor husks of sentiment!
For work in the country does not wait on illness—even death claims from its onlookers but a few hours, birth none at all, and it is as well; for what must be must, and in work alone man rests from grief. ”

“ But the face of it is a little strange, it is not like yesterday. Queer—to think, no day is like to a day that's past and no night like a night that's coming! Why, then, fear death, which is but night? ”

“ To a woman the preciousness of her reputation was a fiction
To shut one's eyes, and be happy—was it possible!
Touching evidences of man's desire to persist for ever
Trouble of youth lasted on almost to old age
Unbound as yet by the fascination of fame or fees
What a man has most desired shall in the end enslave him? ”

“ We allow more freedom to the individual soul. Where there's something little and weak, we feel it kind of noble to give up to it. That way we feel elevated.
I judge a hero is just a person that'll help another at the expense of himself. ”

“ Those whose temperaments and religions show them all things so plainly that they know they are right and others wrong?
For if they do not find it ridiculous to feel contempt, they are perfectly right to feel contempt, it being natural to them ”

“ Education is simply ruining the lower classes. It unsettles them, and that's the worst thing for us all. I see an enormous difference in the manner of servants.
He 's not a bad man really. Sometimes he'll speak quite kind to me, but I've stood so much from him, I don't feel it in me to speak kind back, but just keep myself to myself. ”

“ Opportunists and egotists one and all— though not, indeed, more so than their neighbours—they quailed before her incorruptible figure, and, when opportunities were too strong, what could they do but avoid her! ”

“ We wild ones—we know a thousand times more of life than ever will those sirs. They waste their time trying to make rooks white. Be kind to us if you will, or let us alone like Mees Ann, but do not try to change our skins. ”

“ Insinuations about the private affairs of others
Insolent poise of those who are above doubts and cares
Lest they should lose belief in their own strength
Man who gives advice is a fool
Man who knows his own mind and is contented with that knowledge
Mayn't they love each other, if they want? ”

“ You never can tell what aspiration'll get 'em next. And the 'ole point of an aspiration is the sacrifice of someone else.
"All these fellers 'ave got two weaknesses—one's ideas, and the other's their own importance. They've got to be conspicuous, and without ideas they can't, so it's a vicious circle. When I see a man bein' conspicuous, I says to meself: 'Gawd 'elp us, we shall want it!' And sooner or later we always do. I'll tell you what's the curse of the world, sir; it's the gift of expressin' what ain't your real feeling. ”

“ And those countless Forsytes, who, in the course of innumerable transactions concerned with property of all sorts (from wives to water rights) ....
"I now move, 'That the report and accounts for the year 1886 be received and adopted.' You second that? Those in favour signify the same in the usual way. Contrary—no. Carried. The next business, gentlemen...." Soames smiled. Certainly Uncle Jolyon had a way with him! ”

“ The Rector, who practically never suffered, disliked the thought and sight of others' suffering. Up to this day, indeed, there had been none to dislike, for in answer to inquiries his wife had always said "No, dear, no; I'm all right—really, it's nothing." And she had always said it smiling, even when her smiling lips were white. But this morning in trying to say it she had failed to smile. Her eyes had lost their hopelessly hopeful shining, and sharply between her teeth she said: "Send for Dr. ”