Quotations from the Project Gutenberg Editions of the Collected Works of George Meredith
Part 6
A high wind will make a dead leaf fly like a bird Beware the silent one of an assembly! Brittle is foredoomed Common sense is the secret of every successful civil agitation Its glee at a catastrophe; its poor stock of mercy Money is of course a rough test of virtue Salt of earth, to whom their salt must serve for nourishment Sentimentality puts up infant hands for absolution She herself did not like to be seen eating in public Slightest taste for comic analysis that does not tumble to farce The greed of gain is our volcano The man had to be endured, like other doses in politics Vagrant compassionateness of sentimentalists What might have been What the world says, is what the wind says Without those consolatory efforts, useless between men
DIANA OF THE CROSSWAYS, V5 [GM#75][GM75V10.TXT]4469
Accidents are the specific for averting the maladies of age Accounting for it, is not the same as excusing Assist in our small sphere; not come mouthing to the footlights Avoid the position that enforces publishing Capacity for thinking should precede the act of writing Chaste are wattled in formalism and throned in sourness Could the best of men be simply--a woman's friend? Enthusiasm has the privilege of not knowing monotony Envy of the man of positive knowledge Expectations dupe us, not trust Externally soft and polished, internally hard and relentless Fiddle harmonics on the sensual strings Heart to keep guard and bury the bones you tossed him Holding to the refusal, for the sake of consistency I don't count them against women (moods) I never knew till this morning the force of No in earnest I wanted a hero I'm in love with everything she wishes! I've got the habit If he had valued you half a grain less, he might have won you Infatuated men argue likewise, and scandal does not move them It is the devil's masterstroke to get us to accuse him Let never Necessity draw the bow of our weakness Literature is a good stick and a bad horse Material good reverses its benefits the more nearly we clasp it Mistake of the world is to think happiness possible to the sense Nothing is a secret that has been spoken Nothing the body suffers that the soul may not profit by Now far from him under the failure of an effort to come near Our weakness is the swiftest dog to hunt us Question the gain of such an expenditure of energy Rare men of honour who can command their passion Read with his eyes when you meet him this morning Sham spiritualism She had sunk her intelligence in her sensations Sympathy is for proving, not prating The debts we owe ourselves are the hardest to pay Trial of her beauty of a woman in a temper We don't know we are in halves We're a peaceful people, but 'ware who touches us Weighty little word--woman's native watchdog and guardian (No!) When we despair or discolour things, it is our senses in revolt Who can really think, and not think hopefully? Who venerate when they love With that I sail into the dark Women with brains, moreover, are all heartless
DIANA OF THE CROSSWAYS, ENTIRE [GM#76][GM76V10.TXT]4470
A witty woman is a treasure; a witty Beauty is a power A high wind will make a dead leaf fly like a bird A kindly sense of superiority Accidents are the specific for averting the maladies of age Accounting for it, is not the same as excusing Assist in our small sphere; not come mouthing to the footlights At war with ourselves, means the best happiness we can have Avoid the position that enforces publishing Beautiful women in her position provoke an intemperateness Beauty is rare; luckily is it rare Between love grown old and indifference ageing to love Beware the silent one of an assembly! Brittle is foredoomed But they were a hopeless couple, they were so friendly By resisting, I made him a tyrant Capacity for thinking should precede the act of writing Capricious potentate whom they worship Carry explosives and must particularly guard against sparks Charitable mercifulness; better than sentimental ointment Chaste are wattled in formalism and throned in sourness Circumstances may combine to make a whisper as deadly as a blow Common sense is the secret of every successful civil agitation Compared the governing of the Irish to the management of a horse Could have designed this gabbler for the mate Could the best of men be simply--a woman's friend? Debit was eloquent, he was unanswerable Dedicated to the putrid of the upper circle Depending for dialogue upon perpetual fresh supplies of scandal Dose he had taken was not of the sweetest Dreaded as a scourge, hailed as a refreshment (Scandalsheet) Elderly martyr for the advancement of his juniors Enthusiasm has the privilege of not knowing monotony Envy of the man of positive knowledge Expectations dupe us, not trust Explaining of things to a dull head Externally soft and polished, internally hard and relentless Favour can't help coming by rotation Fiddle harmonics on the sensual strings Flashes bits of speech that catch men in their unguarded corner For 'tis Ireland gives England her soldiers, her generals too Friendship, I fancy, means one heart between two Get back what we give Goodish sort of fellow; good horseman, good shot, good character Grossly unlike in likeness (portraits) Happy in privation and suffering if simply we can accept beauty He was not a weaver of phrases in distress He had by nature a tarnishing eye that cast discolouration He gained much by claiming little He, by insisting, made me a rebel He had neat phrases, opinions in packets He was the maddest of tyrants--a weak one He's good from end to end, and beats a Christian hollow (a hog) Heart to keep guard and bury the bones you tossed him Her peculiar tenacity of the sense of injury Her feelings--trustier guides than her judgement in this crisis Her final impression likened him to a house locked up and empty Herself, content to be dull if he might shine His gaze and one of his ears, if not the pair, were given His ridiculous equanimity Holding to the refusal, for the sake of consistency How immensely nature seems to prefer men to women! Human nature to feel an interest in the dog that has bitten you I wanted a hero I do not see it, because I will not see it I never knew till this morning the force of No in earnest I have and hold--you shall hunger and covet I don't count them against women (moods) I'm in love with everything she wishes! I've got the habit Idea is the only vital breath If I'm struck, I strike back If he had valued you half a grain less, he might have won you Inclined to act hesitation in accepting the aid she sought Inducement to act the hypocrite before the hypocrite world Infatuated men argue likewise, and scandal does not move them Insistency upon there being two sides to a case--to every case Intrusion of the spontaneous on the stereotyped would clash Irony that seemed to spring from aversion It is the best of signs when women take to her It is the devil's masterstroke to get us to accuse him Its glee at a catastrophe; its poor stock of mercy Keep passion sober, a trotter in harness Lengthened term of peace bred maggots in the heads of the people Let never Necessity draw the bow of our weakness Literature is a good stick and a bad horse Loathing for speculation Mare would do, and better than a dozen horses Material good reverses its benefits the more nearly we clasp it Matter that is not nourishing to brains Mistake of the world is to think happiness possible to the sense Mistaking of her desires for her reasons Money is of course a rough test of virtue Moral indignation is ever consolatory Music was resumed to confuse the hearing of the eavesdroppers Mutual deference Needed support of facts, and feared them Never fell far short of outstripping the sturdy pedestrian Time Nothing the body suffers that the soul may not profit by Nothing is a secret that has been spoken Now far from him under the failure of an effort to come near O self! self! self! Observation is the most, enduring of the pleasures of life Omnipotence, which is in the image of themselves One might build up a respectable figure in negatives Openly treated; all had an air of being on the surface Or where you will, so that's in Ireland Our weakness is the swiftest dog to hunt us Our bravest, our best, have an impulse to run Owner of such a woman, and to lose her! Paint themselves pure white, to the obliteration of minor spots Perused it, and did not recognize herself in her language Pride in being always myself Procrastination and excessive scrupulousness Question the gain of such an expenditure of energy Quixottry is agreeable reading, a silly performance Rare men of honour who can command their passion Read with his eyes when you meet him this morning Read deep and not be baffled by inconsistencies Real happiness is a state of dulness Reluctant to take the life of flowers for a whim Rewards, together with the expectations, of the virtuous Salt of earth, to whom their salt must serve for nourishment Sentimentality puts up infant hands for absolution Service of watering the dry and drying the damp (Whiskey) Sham spiritualism She had sunk her intelligence in her sensations She marries, and it's the end of her sparkling She herself did not like to be seen eating in public She had a fatal attraction for antiques Sleepless night Slightest taste for comic analysis that does not tumble to farce Smart remarks have their measured distances Smoky receptacle cherishing millions Something of the hare in us when the hounds are full cry Strain to see in the utter dark, and nothing can come of that Swell and illuminate citizen prose to a princely poetic Sympathy is for proving, not prating Tendency to polysyllabic phraseology Terrible decree, that all must act who would prevail That is life--when we dare death to live! That's the natural shamrock, after the artificial The man had to be endured, like other doses in politics The burlesque Irishman can't be caricatured The greed of gain is our volcano The debts we owe ourselves are the hardest to pay The well of true wit is truth itself The blindness of Fortune is her one merit They have no sensitiveness, we have too much They create by stoppage a volcano This love they rattle about and rave about Tooth that received a stone when it expected candy Top and bottom sin is cowardice Touch him with my hand, before he passed from our sight Trial of her beauty of a woman in a temper Vagrant compassionateness of sentimentalists Vowed never more to repeat that offence to his patience Was not one of the order whose Muse is the Public Taste We live alone, and do not much feel it till we are visited We never see peace but in the features of the dead We must fawn in society We don't know we are in halves We're a peaceful people, but 'ware who touches us Weather and women have some resemblance they say Weighty little word--woman's native watchdog and guardian (No!) What might have been What the world says, is what the wind says What a woman thinks of women, is the test of her nature When we despair or discolour things, it is our senses in revolt Where she appears, the first person falls to second rank Who can really think, and not think hopefully? Who venerate when they love Wife and no wife, a prisoner in liberty With that I sail into the dark Without those consolatory efforts, useless between men Women are taken to be the second thoughts of the Creator Women with brains, moreover, are all heartless World is ruthless, dear friends, because the world is hypocrite World prefers decorum to honesty Yawns coming alarmingly fast, in the place of ideas You beat me with the fists, but my spirit is towering You are entreated to repress alarm
ONE OF OUR CONQUERORS, V1 [GM#77][GM77V10.TXT]4471
Admiration of an enemy or oppressor doing great deeds Aristocratic assumption of licence But what is it we do (excepting cricket, of course) Consent of circumstances Continued trust in the man--is the alternative of despair Critical fashion of intimates who know as well as hear Despises hostile elements and goes unpunished Dithyrambic inebriety of narration Feminine; coming when she willed and flying when wanted Fire smoothes the creases Frankness as an armour over wariness Half a dozen dozen left Hard to bear, at times unbearable Haremed opinion of the unfitness of women He neared her, wooing her; and she assented He never acknowledged a trouble, he dispersed it He prattled, in the happy ignorance of compulsion He sinks terribly when he sinks at all Heathen vindictiveness declaring itself holy If we are really for Nature, we are not lawless In bottle if not on draught (oratory) In the pay of our doctors Intrusion of hard material statements, facts Kelts, as they are called, can't and won't forgive injuries Man with a material object in aim, is the man of his object Nature and Law never agreed Nature's logic, Nature's voice, for self-defence Next door to the Last Trump Obeseness is the most sensitive of our ailments Once out of the rutted line, you are food for lion and jackal One wants a little animation in a husband People of a provocative prosperity Self-deceiver may be a persuasive deceiver of another She was not his match--To speak would be to succumb Slap and pinch and starve our appetites Smallest of our gratifications in life could give a happy tone Smothered in its pudding-bed of the grotesque (obesity) Snuffle of hypocrisy in her prayer State of feverish patriotism Statistics are according to their conjurors Subterranean recess for Nature against the Institutions of Man Tale, which leaves the man's mind at home The effects of the infinitely little The old confession, that we cannot cook(The English) They do not live; they are engines They helped her to feel at home with herself Thought of differences with him caused frightful apprehensions Unshamed exuberant male has found the sweet reverse in his mate We cannot relinquish an idea that was ours We've all a parlous lot too much pulpit in us
ONE OF OUR CONQUERORS, V2 [GM#78][GM78V10.TXT]4472
Ask not why, where reason never was Cover of action as an escape from perplexity Honest creatures who will not accept a lift from fiction Judgeing of the destiny of man by the fate of individuals Memory inspired by the sensations Nature could at a push be eloquent to defend the guilty Satirist too devotedly loves his lash to be a persuasive teacher Slave of existing conventions Startled by the criticism in laughter The impalpable which has prevailing weight There is little to be learnt when a little is known They kissed coldly, pressed a hand, said good night Who enjoyed simple things when commanding the luxuries
ONE OF OUR CONQUERORS, V3 [GM#79][GM79V10.TXT]4473
Belief in the narrative by promoting nausea in the audience Claim for equality puts an end to the priceless privileges Consent to take life as it is Dialogue between Nature and Circumstance Dudley was not gifted to read behind words and looks Exuberant anticipatory trustfulness Fell to chatting upon the nothings agreeably and seriously Greater our successes, the greater the slaves we become He never explained How Success derides Ambition! If only been intellectually a little flexible in his morality Naturally as deceived as he wished to be Official wrath at sound of footfall or a fancied one Optional marriages, broken or renewed every seven years Pessimy is invulnerable Repeatedly, in contempt of the disgust of iteration Satirist is an executioner by profession Semblance of a tombstone lady beside her lord The banquet to be fervently remembered, should smoke The homage we pay him flatters us We must have some excuse, if we would keep to life
ONE OF OUR CONQUERORS, V4 [GM#80][GM80V10.TXT]4474
All of us an ermined owl within us to sit in judgement Cannot be any goodness unless it is a practiced goodness Eminently servile is the tolerated lawbreaker Half designingly permitted her trouble to be seen Happy the woman who has not more to speak If we are robbed, we ask, How came we by the goods? Let but the throb be kept for others--That is the one secret Love must needs be an egoism Not to go hunting and fawning for alliances Portrait of himself by the artist Put into her woman's harness of the bit and the blinkers Share of foulness to them that are for scouring the chamber She disdained to question the mouth which had bitten her The face of a stopped watch The worst of it is, that we remember To do nothing, is the wisdom of those who have seen fools perish We have come to think we have a claim upon her gratitude Whimpering fits you said we enjoy and must have in books
ONE OF OUR CONQUERORS, V5 [GM#81][GM81V10.TXT]4475
An incomprehensible world indeed at the bottom and at the top Arrest the enemy by vociferations of persistent prayer Country prizing ornaments higher than qualities Death is our common cloak; but Calamity individualizes How little we mean to do harm when we do an injury Nation's half made-up of the idle and the servants of the idle No companionship save with the wound they nurse Not always the right thing to do the right thing The night went past as a year Universal censor's angry spite
ONE OF OUR CONQUERORS, ENTIRE [GM#82][GM82V10.TXT]4476
Admiration of an enemy or oppressor doing great deeds All of us an ermined owl within us to sit in judgement An incomprehensible world indeed at the bottom and at the top Aristocratic assumption of licence Arrest the enemy by vociferations of persistent prayer Ask not why, where reason never was Belief in the narrative by promoting nausea in the audience But what is it we do (excepting cricket, of course) Cannot be any goodness unless it is a practiced goodness Claim for equality puts an end to the priceless privileges Consent of circumstances Consent to take life as it is Continued trust in the man--is the alternative of despair Country prizing ornaments higher than qualities Cover of action as an escape from perplexity Critical fashion of intimates who know as well as hear Death is our common cloak; but Calamity individualizes Despises hostile elements and goes unpunished Dialogue between Nature and Circumstance Dithyrambic inebriety of narration Dudley was not gifted to read behind words and looks Eminently servile is the tolerated lawbreaker Exuberant anticipatory trustfulness Fell to chatting upon the nothings agreeably and seriously Feminine; coming when she willed and flying when wanted Fire smoothes the creases Frankness as an armour over wariness Greater our successes, the greater the slaves we become Half designingly permitted her trouble to be seen Half a dozen dozen left Happy the woman who has not more to speak Hard to bear, at times unbearable Haremed opinion of the unfitness of women He sinks terribly when he sinks at all He never acknowledged a trouble, he dispersed it He never explained He neared her, wooing her; and she assented He prattled, in the happy ignorance of compulsion Heathen vindictiveness declaring itself holy Honest creatures who will not accept a lift from fiction How little we mean to do harm when we do an injury How Success derides Ambition! If only been intellectually a little flexible in his morality If we are robbed, we ask, How came we by the goods? If we are really for Nature, we are not lawless In the pay of our doctors In bottle if not on draught (oratory) Intrusion of hard material statements, facts Judgeing of the destiny of man by the fate of individuals Kelts, as they are called, can't and won't forgive injuries Let but the throb be kept for others--That is the one secret Love must needs be an egoism Man with a material object in aim, is the man of his object Memory inspired by the sensations Nation's half made-up of the idle and the servants of the idle Naturally as deceived as he wished to be Nature and Law never agreed Nature could at a push be eloquent to defend the guilty Nature's logic, Nature's voice, for self-defence Next door to the Last Trump No companionship save with the wound they nurse Not to go hunting and fawning for alliances Not always the right thing to do the right thing Obeseness is the most sensitive of our ailments Official wrath at sound of footfall or a fancied one Once out of the rutted line, you are food for lion and jackal One wants a little animation in a husband Optional marriages, broken or renewed every seven years People of a provocative prosperity Pessimy is invulnerable Portrait of himself by the artist Put into her woman's harness of the bit and the blinkers Repeatedly, in contempt of the disgust of iteration Satirist is an executioner by profession Satirist too devotedly loves his lash to be a persuasive teacher Self-deceiver may be a persuasive deceiver of another Semblance of a tombstone lady beside her lord Share of foulness to them that are for scouring the chamber She was not his match--To speak would be to succumb She disdained to question the mouth which had bitten her Slap and pinch and starve our appetites Slave of existing conventions Smallest of our gratifications in life could give a happy tone Smothered in its pudding-bed of the grotesque (obesity) Snuffle of hypocrisy in her prayer Startled by the criticism in laughter State of feverish patriotism Statistics are according to their conjurors Subterranean recess for Nature against the Institutions of Man Tale, which leaves the man's mind at home The banquet to be fervently remembered, should smoke The homage we pay him flatters us The effects of the infinitely little The night went past as a year The old confession, that we cannot cook(The English) The worst of it is, that we remember The face of a stopped watch The impalpable which has prevailing weight There is little to be learnt when a little is known They helped her to feel at home with herself They kissed coldly, pressed a hand, said good night They do not live; they are engines Thought of differences with him caused frightful apprehensions To do nothing, is the wisdom of those who have seen fools perish Universal censor's angry spite Unshamed exuberant male has found the sweet reverse in his mate We have come to think we have a claim upon her gratitude We must have some excuse, if we would keep to life We cannot relinquish an idea that was ours We've all a parlous lot too much pulpit in us Whimpering fits you said we enjoy and must have in books Who enjoyed simple things when commanding the luxuries
LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA, V1 [GM#83][GM83V10.TXT]4477
A female free-thinker is one of Satan's concubines A free-thinker startles him as a kind of demon All that Matey and Browny were forbidden to write they looked Cajoled like a twenty-year-old yahoo at college Could not understand enthusiasm for the schoolmaster's career Curious thing would be if curious things should fail to happen Few men can forbear to tell a spicy story of their friends He began ambitiously--It's the way at the beginning He loathed a skulker I'm for a rational Deity Loathing of artifice to raise emotion Nevertheless, inclinations are an infidelity Published Memoirs indicate the end of a man's activity The despot is alert at every issue, to every chance Things were lumpish and gloomy that day of the week We shall want a war to teach the country the value of courage You'll have to guess at half of everything he tells you You're going to be men, meaning something better than women
LORD ORMONT AND HIS AMINTA, V2 [GM#84][GM84V10.TXT]4478