Thomas Hardy

“ A man who has spent his primal strength in journeying in one direction has not much spirit left for reversing his course. Troy had, since yesterday, faintly reversed his; but the merest opposition had disheartened him. To turn about would have been hard enough under the greatest providential encouragement ”

“ But the tower spouts used to spatter on the stones, and we are puzzled, for this was like the boiling of a pot."
Not being able to read, think, or work, Bathsheba asked Liddy to stay and breakfast with her. The tongue of the more childish woman still ran upon recent events. "Are you going across to the church, ma'am?" she asked.
"Not that I know of," said Bathsheba.
"I thought you might like to go and see where they have put Fanny. The trees hide the place from your window."
Bathsheba had all sorts of dreads about meeting her husband. "Has Mr. Troy been in to-night?" she said. ”

“ A beholder was convinced that nothing on earth could be more hideous than those he saw on the north side until he went round to the south. Of the two on this latter face, only that at the south-eastern corner concerns the story. It was too human to be called like a dragon, too impish to be like a man, too animal to be like a fiend, and not enough like a bird to be called a griffin. ”

“ It has been sometimes argued that there is no truer criterion of the vitality of any given art-period than the power of the master-spirits of that time in grotesque; and certainly in the instance of Gothic art there is no disputing the proposition. Weatherbury tower was a somewhat early instance of the use of an ornamental parapet in parish as distinct from cathedral churches, and the gurgoyles, which are the necessary correlatives of a parapet, were exceptionally prominent -- of the boldest cut that the hand could shape, and of the most original design that a human brain could conceive. ”

“ He simply threw up his cards and forswore his game for that time and always. Going out of the churchyard silently and unobserved -- none of the villagers having yet risen -- he passed down some fields at the back, and emerged just as secretly upon the high road. ”