Tess of the d'Urbervilles Quotes

“That innate love of melody, which she had inherited from her ballad-singing mother, gave the simplest music a power over her which could well-nigh drag her heart out of her bosom at times.”

― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

topic:heartmusic

“Beauty to her, as to all who have felt, lay not in the thing, but in what the thing symbolized.”

― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

topic:beauty

“They were as sublime as the moon and stars above them, and the moon and stars were as ardent as they.”

― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

topic:beautystars

“Meanwhile the trees were just as green as before; the birds sang and the sun shone as clearly now as ever. The familiar surroundings had not darkened because of her grief, nor sickened because of her pain.”

― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

topic:painnaturegrief

“However, our impulses are too strong for our judgement sometimes.”

― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

topic:reasonpassionjudgement

“So do flux and reflux—the rhythm of change—alternate and persist in everything under the sky.”

― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

topic:change

“Don't think of what's past! . . . I am not going to think outside of now. Why should we! Who knows what to-morrow has in store?”

― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

topic:futurepastpresent

“Why didn't you tell me there was danger in men-folk? Why didn't you warn me? Ladies know what to fend hands against, because they read novels that tell them of these tricks; but I never had the chance o' learning in that way, and you did not help me!”

― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

topic:readinglearning

“Patience, that blending of moral courage with physical timidity, was now no longer a minor feature in Mrs Angel Clare; and it sustained her.”

― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

topic:couragepatience

“And it was the touch of the imperfect upon the would-be perfect that gave the sweetness, because it was that which gave the humanity.”

― Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d'Urbervilles

topic:humanity