George Gissing Quotes

— Amy said that would be an imprudent expense; but as soon as he had got a good price for a book. Will not the publishers be kind? If they knew what happiness lurked in embryo within their foolish cheque-books!

It is the duty of every man, who has sufficient means, to maintain a wife. The life of unmarried women is a wretched one; every man who is able ought to save one of them from that fate.

Un ideale spinto all'estremo non è poi tanto meglio dell'assenza di ideali.

I don't advise. You mutn't give any weight to what I say, except in so far as your own judgment approves it.

Walker's a fool and Quarmby's an ass,' remarked her father.

To his mind there was something unnatural in a union between Egremont and Thyrza; try as he would, he could not realise it as having come to pass. The two were parted by so vast a social distinction, and, let Nature say what it will, the artificialities of life are wont to prevail.

Dora kept her eyes down, and smiled ambiguously.

He is a strong man,’ Stella said in a tone which betrayed the Socialist’s enthusiasm. ‘He stands for earth-subduing energy. I imagine him at a forge, beating fire out of iron.

Everything he undertook was easy to him, and by a pleasant self-deception he made the passing of a school task his augury of success in greater things.

It is familiarity with life that makes time speed quickly. When every day is a step in the unknown, as for children, the days are long with gathering of experience . . .

"What a shame it is," quoth Dr. Derwent, "that an honest man who facilitates murder on so great a scale should be kept waiting for his reward!"

No, my dear. We happen to be going to the root of things, that's all. Perhaps it's as well to do so now and then.

Refuge from despair is often found in the passion of self-pity and that spirit of obstinate resistance which it engenders.

Why, who are the real social reformers? The men who don’t care a scrap for the people, but take up ideas because they can make capital out of them. It isn’t idealists who do the work of the world, but the hard-headed, practical, selfish men. A big employer of labour ‘ll do more good in a day, just because he sees profit’ll come of it, than all the mooning philanthropists in a hundred years.

A novel with undoubted weaknesses, it is nevertheless a considerable achievement for a 22 year