Quotes by Thomas Hardy
Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons.
A woman would rather visit her own grave than the place where she has been young and beautiful after she is aged and ugly.
The offhand decision of some commonplace mind high in office at a critical moment influences the course of events for a hundred years.
Like the British Constitution, she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.
I was court-martial in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.
Well: what we gain by science is, after all, sadness, as the Preacher saith. The more we know of the laws and nature of the Universe the more ghastly a business we perceive it all to be - and the non-necessity of it.
Some folk want their luck buttered.
Patience, that blending of moral courage with physical timidity.
The excessive regard of parents for their children, and their dislike of other people's is, like class feeling, patriotism, save-your-soul-ism, and other virtues, a mean exclusiveness at bottom.
Aspect are within us, and who seems most kingly is king.
You was a good man, and did good things.
Don't you go believing in sayings, Picotee: they are all made by men, for their own advantages. Women who use public proverbs as a guide through events are those who have not ingenuity enough to make private ones as each event occurs.
That man's silence is wonderful to listen to.
The value of old age depends upon the person who reaches it. To some men of early performance it is useless. To others, who are late to develop, it just enables them to finish the job.
