Thomas Hardy

“ Bathsheba was absolutely speechless. And yet she could not help feeling that the assistance he was rendering forbade a harsh repulse.
"Well," continued Troy, "I suppose there is a praise which is rudeness, and that may be mine. At the same time there is a treatment which is injustice, and that may be yours. Because a plain blunt man, who has never been taught concealment, speaks out his mind without exactly intending it, he's to be snapped off like the son of a sinner." ”

“ Men are such constant fools! The rest may try to get over their passion with more or less success. But all these men will be saddened. And not only those ninety-nine men, but the ninety-nine women they might have married are saddened with them. There's my tale. That's why I say that a woman so charming as yourself, Miss Everdene, is hardly a blessing to her race."
The handsome sergeant's features were during this speech as rigid and stern as John Knox's in addressing his gay young queen. ”

“ Out of these say twenty will endeavour to drown the bitterness of despised love in drink; twenty more will mope away their lives without a wish or attempt to make a mark in the world, because they have no ambition apart from their attachment to you; twenty more -- the susceptible person myself possibly among them -- will be always draggling after you, getting where they may just see you, doing desperate things. ”

“ I DO Miss Everdene, care for it. You may think a man foolish to want a mere word -- just a good morning. Perhaps he is -- I don't know. But you have never been a man looking upon a woman, and that woman yourself. ”

“ A more plebeian one will answer my purpose just as well, and the pleasure of knowing whose heart my old one beats against -- well, I won't speak of that. It is in far worthier hands than ever it has been in before. ”