Top 272 Quotes & Sayings by Anthony Trollope - Page 2

But then in novels the most indifferent hero comes out right at last. Some god comes out of a theatrical cloud and leaves the poor devil ten thousand-a-year and a title.

When it comes to money nobody should give up anything.

A fellow oughtn't to let his family property go to pieces.

I doubt whether any girl would be satisfied with her lover's mind if she knew the whole of it.

It is hard to rescue a man from the slough of luxury and idleness combined. If anything can do it, it is a cradle filled annually.

The happiest man is he, who being above the troubles which money brings, has his hands the fullest of work.

Men who can succeed in deceiving no one else, will succeed at last in deceiving themselves.

Rights and rules, which are bonds of iron to a little man, are packthread to a giant.

Till we can become divine, we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower.

Beware of creating tedium!

It is very hard, that necessity of listening to a man who says nothing

I run great risk of failing. It may be that I shall encounter ruin where I look for reputation and a career of honor. The chances are perhaps more in favour of ruin than of success. But, whatever may be the chances, I shall go on as long as any means of carrying on the fight are at my disposal.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

Perhaps there is no position more perilous to a man's honesty thanthat?of knowing himselftobe quiteloved by a girl whom he almost loves himself.

A farmer's horse is never lame, never unfit to go. Never throws out curbs, never breaks down before or behind. Like his master he is never showy. He does not paw and prance, and arch his neck, and bid the world admire his beauties...and when he is wanted, he can always do his work.

Equality would be a heaven, if we could attain it.

A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.

Let a man be of what side he may in politics, unless he be much more of a partisan than a patriot, he will think it well that there should be some equity of division in the bestowal of crumbs of comfort.

When the little dog snarls, the big dog does not connect the snarl with himself, simply fancying that the little dog must be uncomfortable.

Men are cowards before women until they become tyrants.

The greatest mistake any man ever made is to suppose that the good things of the world are not worth the winning.

The girl can look forward to little else than the chance of having a good man for her husband; a good man, or if her tastes lie in that direction, a rich man.

That I can read and be happy while I am reading, is a great blessing.

Considering how much we are all given to discuss the characters of others, and discuss them often not in the strictest spirit of charity, it is singular how little we are inclined to think that others can speak ill-naturedly of us, and how angry and hurt we are when proof reaches us that they have done so.

I hate a stupid man who can't talk to me, and I hate a clever man who talks me down. I don’t like a man who is too lazy to make any effort to shine; but I particularly dislike the man who is always striving for effect. I abominate a humble man, but yet I love to perceive that a man acknowledges the superiority of my sex, and youth and all that kind of thing. . . A man who would tell me that I am pretty, unless he is over seventy, ought to be kicked out of the room. But a man who can't show me that he thinks me so without saying a word about it, is a lout.

One can only pour out of a jug that which is in it.

Those who have courage to love should have courage to suffer.

Above all else, never think you're not good enough.

What on earth could be more luxurious than a sofa, a book, and a cup of coffee?...Was ever anything so civil?

The secrets of the world are very marvellous, but they are not themselves half so wonderful as the way in which they become known to the world.

But then the pastors and men of God can only be human,--cannot altogether be men of God; and so they have oppressed us, and burned us, and tortured us, and hence come to love palaces, and fine linen, and purple, and, alas, sometimes, mere luxury and idleness.

Speeches easy to young speakers are generally very difficult to old listeners.

This habit of reading, I make bold to tell you, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will support you when all other recreations are gone. It will last until your death. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.

Let no man boast himself that he has got through the perils of winter till at least the seventh of May.

Every man worships the dollar, and is down before his shrine from morning to night... Other men, the world over, worship regularly at the shrine with matins and vespers, nones and complines, and whatever other daily services may be known to the religious houses; but the New Yorker is always on his knees.

The double pleasure of pulling down an opponent, and of raising oneself, is the charm of a politician's life.

There is such a difference between life and theory.

The best way to be thankful is to use the goods the gods provide you.

Of course, Lady Arabella could not suckle the young heir herself. Ladies Arabella never can. They are gifted with the powers of being mothers, but not nursing mothers. Nature gives them bosoms for show, but not for use. So Lady Arabella had a wet-nurse.

I judge a man by his actions with men, much more than by his declarations Godwards - When I find him to be envious, carping, spiteful, hating the successes of others, and complaining that the world has never done enough for him, I am apt to doubt whether his humility before God will atone for his want of manliness.

I am ready to obey as a child; :;but, not being a child, I think I ought to have a reason.

What man thinks of changing himself so as to suit his wife? And yet men expect that women shall put on altogether new characters when they are married, and girls think that they can do so.

What man thinks of changing himself so as to suit his wife?

Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who has a low opinion of himself.

The habit of reading is the only one I know in which there is no alloy. It lasts when all other pleasures fade.

Many people talk much, and then very many people talk very much more.

Late hours, nocturnal cigars, and midnight drinkings, pleasurable though they may be, consume too quickly the free-flowing lamps of youth, and are fatal at once to the husbanded candle-ends of age.

One wants in a Prime Minister a good many things, but not very great things. He should be clever but need not be a genius; he should be conscientious but by no means strait-laced; he should be cautious but never timid, bold but never venturesome; he should have a good digestion, genial manners, and, above all, a thick skin.

There are worse things than a lie... I have found... that it may be well to choose one sin in order that another may be shunned.

After money in the bank, a grudge is the next best thing.

Never let the estate decrease in your hands. It is only by such resolutions as that that English noblemen and English gentlemen can preserve their country. I cannot bear to see property changing hands.

When once a woman is married she should be regarded as having thrown off her allegiance to her own sex. She is sure to be treacherous at any rate in one direction.

Of all the needs a book has the chief need is that it be readable.

Of all hatreds that the world produces, a wife's hatred for her husband, when she does hate him, is the strongest.

There is nothing perhaps so generally consoling to a man as a well-established grievance; a feeling of having been injured, on which his mind can brood from hour to hour, allowing him to plead his own cause in his own court, within his own heart, and always to plead it successfully.

Never think that you're not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. People will take you very much at your own reckoning.

Fortune favors the brave; and the world certainly gives the most credit to those who are able to give an unlimited credit to themselves.

Nothing surely is as potent as a law that may not be disobeyed. It has the force of the water drop that hollows the stone. A small dainty task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.

But who ever yet was offered a secret and declined it?

I doubt whether I ever read any description of scenery which gave me an idea of the place described.