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Elizabeth Gaskell
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“Waiting is far more difficult than doing.”
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“... like all energetic people, the more he had to do the more time he seemed to find.”
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“Them lawyers is no better than a sponge for sucking up money.”
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“Don't think to come over me with th' old tale, that the rich know nothing of the trials of the poor; I say, if they don't know, they ought to know.”
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“Opportunities are not often wanting where inclination goes before ...”
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“Errands of mercy — errands of sin — did you ever think where all the thousands of people you daily meet are bound?”
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“Th' longest lane will have a turning ...”
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“Everyone has their time and kind of waiting.”
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“I sometimes think there's two sides to the commandment; and that we may say, 'Let others do unto you, as you would do unto them,' for pride often prevents our giving others a great deal of pleasure, in not letting them be kind, when their hearts are longing to help ...”
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“What's the use of watching? A watched pot never boils ...”
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“A man ... is so in the way in the house!”
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“Their dress is very independent of fashion; as they observe, 'What does it signify how we dress here at Cranford, where everybody knows us?' And if they go from home, their reason is equally cogent: 'What does it signify how we dress here, where nobody knows us?'”
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“[We] talked on about household forms and ceremonies, as if we all believed that our hostess had a regular servants' hall ... instead of the one little charity-school maiden, whose short ruddy arms could never have been strong enough to carry the tray up-stairs, if she had not been assisted in private by her mistress, who now sat in state, pretending not to know what cakes were sent up; though she knew, and we knew, and she knew that we knew, and we knew that she knew that we knew, she had been busy all the morning making tea-bread and sponge cakes.”
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“... we were none of us musical, though Miss Jenkyns beat time, out of time, by way of appearing to be so.”
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“... a little credulity helps one on through life very smoothly ...”
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“Everybody has a bugbear fault; a sort of standing characteristic — a pièce de résistance for their friends to cut at ...”
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“I'll not listen to reason ... Reason always means what some one else has got to say.”
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“... I'll make her a pudding, and a pudding she'll like, too ... Many a one has been comforted in their sorrow by seeing a good dish come upon the table.”
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“A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.”
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“But the cloud never comes in that quarter of the horizon from which we watch for it.”
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“'Dear! Everybody is ill now, I think,' said Mrs. Hale, with a little of the jealousy which one invalid is apt to feel of another.”
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“Those who are happy and successful themselves are too apt to make light of the misfortunes of others.”
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“A solitary life cherishes mere fancies until they become manias.”
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“All the earth, though it were full of kind hearts, is but a desolation and desert place to a mother when her only child is absent.”
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“[On books waiting to be read:] I have not had time yet. But I look at them as a child looks at a cake, — with glittering eyes and watering mouth, imagining the pleasure that awaits him!”
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“... that kind of patriotism which consists in hating all other nations ...”
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“But now there was the new feeling — the last new feeling which we shall any of us experience in this world — that death was not only close at hand, but inevitable.”
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“... anticipation was the soul of enjoyment.”
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“In all disappointments sympathy is a great balm.”
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“If me no ifs ...”
Elizabeth Gaskell, English novelist, biographer
(1810 - 1865)
Full name: Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson Gaskell.