The quotations of

Thomas Hardy

English novelist and poet

1840–1928

25 quotes, most often on Love, Morality and Marriage.

The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfillment of that hope never entirely removes.
- Hope
Patience, that blending of moral courage with physical timidity.
Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), Phase the Fifth: The Woman Pays, ch. XLIIIIn context
- Courage
Like the British Constitution, she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.
The Hand of Ethelberta (1876), Ch. 9
- Clever Jabs
It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.
Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), Ch. 51In context
- Talking
- Women
If you are cheerful, and wish to remain so, leave the study of astronomy alone. Of all the sciences, it alone deserves the character of the terrible.
Two on a Tower (1882), Vol 1, ch. 4 (Swithin St Cleeve speaking to Viviette Constantine)
- Science
My argument is that War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading.
The Dynasts (1904–1908), Pt. II, sc. v, Spirit Sinister
- History
- War & Peace
A lover without indiscretion is no lover at all. Circumspection and devotion are a contradiction in terms.
The Hand of Ethelberta (1876), Ch. 20
- Love
Do not do an immoral thing for moral reasons!
Jude the Obscure (1895), Pt. VI, ch. IIIIn context
- Morality
A novel is an impression, not an argument
Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), Author’s Preface to the Fifth and Later EditionsIn context
- Writing
Justice” was done, and the President of the Immortals, in Æschylean phrase, had ended his sport with Tess.
Tess of the d’Urbervilles (1891), Phase the Seventh: Fulfilment, Chapter LIXIn context
- God
- Justice
Or, to state his character as it stood in the scale of public opinion, when his friends and critics were in tantrums, he was considered rather a bad man; when they were pleased, he was rather a good man; when they were neither, he was a man whose moral colour was a kind of pepper-and-salt mixture.
Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), Chapter IIn context
- Character
- Morality
Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness. Marriage transforms a distraction into a support, the power of which should be, and happily often is, in direct proportion to the degree of imbecility it supplants.
Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), Chapter IVIn context
- Love
- Marriage
“All romances end at marriage.”
Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), Chapter XLIIn context
- Love
- Marriage
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
The Darkling Thrush (1900)In context
- Hope
But nobody did come, because nobody does
Jude the Obscure (1895), Part First: At Marygreen, Chapter IVIn context
- Hope

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