Jude Morgan

“I have been run over by the speeding chariot of fate, caught up in its spiked wheels." - "I hate it when that happens," said Stephen.”

“I found out when I went away from Wythorpe the first time in November--remember? How nice it is to rhyme, I must do it all the time.”

“We are always parting! It's supposed to be sweet sorrow or something, isn't it? Those poets. They'll say anything.”

“He peered gloomily into a folio of maps. 'I always think Brazil is too big.”

“Matthew gave her such a hurt, wistful, nobly forbearing, and absolutely infuriating look that if Caroline had been a rich aunt she would have cut him out of her will on the spot.”

“I must try to be charitable, Caroline thought: probably she doesn't mean to sound as if she is continually translating from Latin.”

“...soon dinner will run into bed-time, and we shall all eat reclining like the ancient Romans--about whose digestion, you know, I have often wondered. Whether a dose of rhubabrb might have made a difference to Nero or Caligula is a question you might ponder, my dear, next time you go through your Tacitus.”

“And now over there is a gentleman who should not wear tight pantaloons. You will see when he turns around. There. That is why.”

“What did she love Shelley for? His reckless spontaneity -- like this. His helpless generous nature -- like this. His treatment of her as a reasonable human being and not a trembling little rose -- and so on. If she loved him for these things, could she hate him for them? Could she?”

“But then she often felt like this lately. The world seemed full of transparent frauds that only she could see through. She was forever shouting from the hustings of honesty, though if any honesty were directed at her she ran from it horrified. And she knew it, laughed at herself for it, wretchedly. She was all to pieces.”

“Probably no purer incitement to hatred existed, Lydia had found, than being told of anyone or anything: you will love him, her or it. The spirit immediately rose up like a fanged cobra.”

“There can be few places more conducive to the quiet, solitary contemplation of melancholy thoughts than a window-seat; and if beyond the window-panes there is a steely vignette of November murk and withered twigs, so much the better.”

“Keats was getting a reputation just when he was too ill to appreciate it or build on it: his country was taking notice of him just when he would have to leave it.”

“No amount of parental protectiveness could overcome the fact that she was very ready to be dazzled.”

“One wouldn't wish to tempt fate”

“We shall live, love and be happy as mortals can be”

“Love is always unexpected”

“When you are in love- everything is romantic”

“I am all or nothing”

“It is our feelings that guide us and they can never lead us wrong”

“Words are only words”

“I love you more than I can express, or can ever hope to express”

“I have striven never to betray myself”

“It is painful to see someone suffering what you must be suffering- watching someone you love be so cruelly hurt.”

“You cannot believe everything you hear”

“Love is the hardest thing to grasp. You have to seize it at once, else it may be too late.”

“She simply cannot let go of love- and who can blame that? Is it not the hardest thing in the world to relinquish, once you have it?”

“You have made him live.”

“I am no faint-heart when it comes to the unpleasant truth. Indeed I have always taken a bracing sort of pleasure in facing it.”

“Grown people with rational minds somehow do not know what's best for them.”

“None of us like to think we are silly. But all must acknowledge that they are capable of silliness, from time to time”

“I will do what I can”

“It is not always easy, for a woman alone.”

“It is so important to think for yourself.”

“No young woman of good breeding should show exclusive partiality to one partner all night.”

“People argue themselves out of their pleasures”

“You can greet even the dullest acquaintance with pleasure, if you have forgotten their dreary story.”

“I can always forgive where I understand.”

“I make a rule never to remember anything before last week. It makes life more interesting”

“We always think we know what we want: when in truth there is nothing we are less likely to know.”

“No expectations mean there is no risk of disappointment.”

“Curious creatures we mortals are-how we do not know what we want, or how to get it if we do.”

“One hesitates to open a new chapter when the old one is not resolved.”

“That's the way girls are isn't it? They swear eternal friendship, and then as soon as a man's in the case it's all forgotten.”

“Everyone has something of the spiti that animates the artist”

“Life is shockingly short to trouble about certain things.”

“The respectable world and I are on easy terms. I ignore it when I choose, and it does likewise with me.”

“Dullness it is that perverts and corrups the spirit but it is always possible to look past the dullness, and see the bright, shining heart of things”

“Imagination shrinks from the consequences.”

“Perhaps grown women are beings of a good deal more complexity than cats”