H. Rider Haggard Quotes

It seems that in this world we never can be content . . . we only think that we should be if things were otherwise than they are.

. . . the time of kings is not their own.

Forgive me since I acted for the best, only until the end no one ever knows what is the best.

. . . even a king may choose his own wife sometimes.

. . . gifts have a way of coming to those who do not desire them

. . . feasts are sometimes followed by want and rejoicings by sorrow and victories by defeat, and splendid sins by repentance and slow climbing back to good again.

It is well to be wise sometimes, for others’ sake, but not for our own, oh! not for our own.

. . . do not lie except when you are obliged, for jugglers who play with too many knives are apt to cut their fingers.

. . . too great holiness often thwarts itself and ends in trouble for the unholy flesh.

While you are a man, live the life of a man, and when you become a spirit, live the life of a spirit. But do not seek to mix the two together like oil and wine, and thus spoil both.

. . . why do you seek to peer into the future, which from day to day will unroll itself as does a scroll? Be content with the present, man, and take what Fate gives you of good or ill, not seeking to learn what offerings he hides beneath his robe in the days and the years and the centuries to come.

The tool carves the statue and the hand holds the tool but the spirit guides the band.

The seconds seemed minutes, the minutes seemed hours, and the hours seemed years. . . Where now were the gods I had worshipped and—was there any god? Or was man but a self-deceiver who created gods instead of the gods creating him, because he did not love to think of an eternal blackness in which he would soon be swallowed up and lost? Well, at least that would mean sleep, and sleep is better than torment of mind or body.

. . . who ever sees Wisdom until she is flying away?

Never stretch out your hand to Death till he stretches out his to you