Quotes and Images From The Works of George Meredith - George Meredith
QUOTES AND IMAGES FROM GEORGE MEREDITH
THE WORKS OF GEORGE MEREDITH
PROSE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
George Meredith in 1893
The Sitting Room, Flint Cottage--May 18th 1909
Age 35
Age 68
Age 69
Age 72
Age 80
A lover must have his delusions, just
as a man must have a skin
A madman gets madder when you talk
reason to him
A night that had shivered repose
A dash of conventionalism makes the
whole civilized world kin
A string of pearls: a woman who goes
beyond that's in danger
A wound of the same kind that we are
inflicting
A tear would have overcome him--She had
not wept
A tragic comedian: that is, a grand
pretender, a self-deceiver
A fleet of South-westerly rain-clouds
had been met in mid-sky
A bone in a boy's mind for him to gnaw
and worry
A kind of anchorage in case of
indiscretion
A cloud of millinery shoots me off a
mile from a woman
A woman's at the core of every plot man
plotteth
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
A young philosopher's an old fool!
A bird that won't roast or boil or stew
A woman, and would therefore listen to
nonsense
A male devotee is within an inch of a
miracle
A great oration may be a sedative
A very doubtful benefit
A generous enemy is a friend on the
wrong side
A woman is hurt if you do not confide
to her your plans
A woman who has mastered sauces sits on
the apex of civilization
A style of affable omnipotence about
the wise youth
A maker of Proverbs--what is he but a
narrow mind wit
A fortress face; strong and massive,
and honourable in ruin
A dumb tongue can be a heavy liar
A common age once, when he married her;
now she had grown old
A share of pity for the objects she
despised
A woman rises to her husband. But a
man is what he is
A stew's a stew, and not a boiling to
shreds
A marriage without love is dishonour
A plunge into the deep is of little
moment
A sixpence kindly meant is worth any
crown-piece that's grudged
A man to be trusted with the keys of
anything
A free-thinker startles him as a kind
of demon
A female free-thinker is one of Satan's
concubines
A wise man will not squander his
laughter if he can help it
A man who rejected medicine in
extremity
A lady's company-smile
A country of compromise goes to pieces
at the first cannon-shot
A youth who is engaged in the
occupation of eating his heart
A whisper of cajolery in season is
often the secret
A superior position was offered her by
her being silent
A contented Irishman scarcely seems my
countryman
Abject sense of the lack of a
circumference
Above all things I detest the writing
for money
Above Nature, I tell him, or, we shall
be very much below
Absolute freedom could be the worst of
perils
Accidents are the specific for averting
the maladies of age
Accounting his tight blue tail coat and
brass buttons a victory
Accounting for it, is not the same as
excusing
Accustomed to be paid for by his
country
Acting is not of the high class which
conceals the art
Active despair is a passion that must
be superseded
Add on a tired pipe after dark, and a
sound sleep to follow
Adept in the lie implied
Admirable scruples of an inveterate
borrower
Admiration of an enemy or oppressor
doing great deeds
Admires a girl when there's no married
woman or widow in sight
Adversary at once offensive and
helpless provokes brutality
Advised not to push at a shut gate
Affected misapprehensions
Affectedly gentle and unusually
roundabout opening
After forty, men have married their
habits
After five years of marriage, and
twelve of friendship
After a big blow, a very little one
scarcely counts
Agostino was enjoying the smoke of
paper cigarettes
Ah! how sweet to waltz through life
with the right partner
Ah! we're in the enemy's country now
Ah! we fall into their fictions
Aimlessness of a woman's curiosity
Alike believe that Providence is for
them
All of us an ermined owl within us to
sit in judgement
All concessions to the people have been
won from fear
All passed too swift for happiness
All women are the same--Know one, know
all
All that Matey and Browny were
forbidden to write they looked
All are friends who sit at table
All flattery is at somebody's expense
Allowed silly sensitiveness to prevent
the repair
Although it blew hard when Caesar
crossed the Rubicon
Always the shout for more produced it
("News")
Am I ill? I must be hungry!
Am I thy master, or thou mine?
Americans forgivingly remember, without
mentioning
Amiable mirror as being wilfully
ruffled to confuse
Among boys there are laws of honour and
chivalrous codes
Amused after their tiresome work of
slaughter
An edge to his smile that cuts much
like a sneer
An obedient creature enough where he
must be
An angry woman will think the worst
An incomprehensible world indeed at the
bottom and at the top
An instinct labouring to supply the
deficiencies of stupidity
An old spoiler of women is worse than
one spoiled by them!
And now came war, the purifier and the
pestilence
And so Farewell my young Ambition! and
with it farewell all true
And he passed along the road, adds the
Philosopher
And, ladies, if you will consent to be
likened to a fruit
And her voice, against herself, was for
England
And one gets the worst of it (in any
bargain)
And it's one family where the dog is
pulled by the collar
And not any of your grand ladies can
match my wife at home
And to these instructions he gave an
aim: "First be virtuous"
And not be beaten by an acknowledged
defeat
And never did a stroke of work in my
life
And life said, Do it, and death said,
To what end?
Anecdotist to slaughter families for
the amusement
Anguish to think of having bent the
knee for nothing
Anticipate opposition by initiating
measures
Any man is in love with any woman
Any excess pushes to craziness
Appealed to reason in them; he would
not hear of convictions
Appetite to flourish at the cost of the
weaker
Arch-devourer Time
Are we practical?' penetrates the bosom
of an English audience
Aristocratic assumption of licence
Arm'd with Fear the Foe finds passage
to the vital part
Arrest the enemy by vociferations of
persistent prayer
Art of despising what he coveted
Art of speaking on politics tersely
As when nations are secretly preparing
for war
As to wit, the sneer is the cloak of
clumsiness
As secretive as they are sensitive
As the Lord decided, so it would end!
"Oh, delicious creed!"
As well ask (women) how a battle-field
concerns them!
As faith comes--no saying how; one
swears by them
As if she had never heard him
previously enunciate the formula
As little trouble as the heath when the
woods are swept
As if the age were the injury!
As for titles, the way to defend them
is to be worthy of them
As fair play as a woman's lord could
give her
As for comparisons, they are flowers
thrown into the fire
As in all great oratory! The key of it
is the pathos
As becomes them, they do not look ahead
Ashamed of letting his ears be filled
with secret talk
Ask not why, where reason never was
Ask pardon of you, without excusing
myself
Assist in our small sphere; not come
mouthing to the footlights
At the age of forty, men that love love
rootedly
At war with ourselves, means the best
happiness we can have
Attacked my conscience on the cowardly
side
Automatic creature is subject to the
laws of its construction
Avoid the position that enforces
publishing
Back from the altar to discover that
she has chained herself
Bad laws are best broken
Bad luck's not repeated every day Keep
heart for the good
Bade his audience to beware of princes
Bandied the weariful shuttlecock of
gallantry
Barriers are for those who cannot fly
Be philosophical, but accept your
personal dues
Be politic and give her elbow-room for
her natural angles
Be what you seem, my little one
Be on your guard the next two minutes
he gets you alone
Be good and dull, and please everybody
Be the woman and have the last word!
Bear in mind that we are
sentimentalists--The eye is our servant
Beauchamp's career
Beautiful servicelessness
Beautiful women in her position provoke
an intemperateness
Beautiful women may believe themselves
beloved
Beauty is rare; luckily is it rare
Because you loved something better than
me
Because he stood so high with her now
he feared the fall
Because men can't abide praise of
another man
Becoming air of appropriation that made
it family history
Bed was a rock of refuge and fortified
defence
Began the game of Pull
Beginning to have a movement to kiss
the whip
Behold the hero embarked in the
redemption of an erring beauty
Being heard at night, in the nineteenth
century
Being in heart and mind the brother to
the sister with women
Belief in the narrative by promoting
nausea in the audience
Believed in her love, and judged it by
the strength of his own
Bent double to gather things we have
tossed away
Better for men of extremely opposite
opinions not to meet
Between love grown old and indifference
ageing to love
Beware the silent one of an assembly!
Beyond a plot of flowers, a gold-green
meadow dipped to a ridge
Bitten hard at experience, and know the
value of a tooth
Borrower to be dancing on Fortune's
tight-rope above the old abyss
Botched mendings will only make them
worse
Bound to assure everybody at table he
was perfectly happy
Bounds of his intelligence closed their
four walls
Boys, of course--but men, too!
Boys are unjust
Boys who can appreciate brave deeds are
capable of doing them
Braggadocioing in deeds is only next
bad to mouthing it
Brains will beat Grim Death if we have
enough of them
Brief negatives are not re-assuring to
a lover's uneasy mind
British hunger for news; second only to
that for beef
Brittle is foredoomed
Brotherhood among the select who wear
masks instead of faces
But I leave it to you
But a woman must now and then
ingratiate herself
But great, powerful London--the new
universe to her spirit
But to strangle craving is indeed to go
through a death
But the flower is a thing of the
season; the flower drops off
But you must be beautiful to please
some men
But they were a hopeless couple, they
were so friendly
But the key to young men is the
ambition, or, in the place of it.....
But love for a parent is not merely
duty
But a great success is full of
temptations
But what is it we do (excepting
cricket, of course)
But is there such a thing as happiness
But had sunk to climb on a firmer
footing
By our manner of loving we are known
By forbearance, put it in the wrong
By resisting, I made him a tyrant
By nature incapable of asking pardon
Cajoled like a twenty-year-old yahoo at
college
Call of the great world's appetite for
more (Invented news)
Calm fanaticism of the passion of love
Can you not be told you are perfect
without seeking to improve
Can believe a woman to be any age when
her cheeks are tinted
Can a man go farther than his nature?
Cannot be any goodness unless it is a
practiced goodness
Canvassing means intimidation or
corruption
Capacity for thinking should precede
the act of writing
Capricious potentate whom they worship
Careful not to smell of his office
Carry explosives and must particularly
guard against sparks
Carry a scene through in virtue's name
and vice's mask
Causes him to be popularly weighed
Centres of polished barbarism known as
aristocratic societies
Challenged him to lead up to her
desired stormy scene
Charges of cynicism are common against
all satirists
Charitable mercifulness; better than
sentimental ointment
Charity that supplied the place of
justice was not thanked
Chaste are wattled in formalism and
throned in sourness
Cheerful martyr
Childish faith in the beneficence of
the unseen Powers who feed us
Chose to conceive that he thought
abstractedly
Circumstances may combine to make a
whisper as deadly as a blow
Civil tongue and rosy smiles sweeten
even sour wine
Claim for equality puts an end to the
priceless privileges
Clotilde fenced, which is half a
confession
Cock-sure has crowed low by sunset
Cold curiosity
Cold charity to all
Come prepared to be not very well
satisfied with anything
Comfortable have to pay in occasional
panics for the serenity
Command of countenance the Countess
possessed
Commencement of a speech proves that
you have made the plunge
Common voice of praise in the mouths of
his creditors
Common sense is the secret of every
successful civil agitation
Compared the governing of the Irish to
the management of a horse
Comparisons will thrust themselves on
minds disordered
Compassionate sentiments veered round
to irate amazement
Complacent languor of the wise youth
Compliment of being outwitted by their
own offspring
Compromise is virtual death
Conduct is never a straight index where
the heart's involved
Confess no more than is necessary, but
do everything you can
Confident serenity inspired by evil
prognostications
Consciousness of some guilt when vowing
itself innocent
Consent to take life as it is
Consent of circumstances
Conservative, whose astounded state
paralyzes his wrath
Consign discussion to silence with the
cynical closure
Constitutionally discontented
Consult the family means--waste your
time
Contempt of military weapons and
ridicule of the art of war
Contemptuous exclusiveness could not go
farther
Continued trust in the man--is the
alternative of despair
Convict it by instinct without the
ceremony of a jury
Convictions we store--wherewith to
shape our destinies
Convictions are generally first
impressions
Convincing themselves that they
impersonate sagacity
Cordiality of an extreme relief in
leaving
Could we--we might be friends
Could peruse platitudes upon that theme
with enthusiasm
Could not understand enthusiasm for the
schoolmaster's career
Could the best of men be simply--a
woman's friend?
Could have designed this gabbler for
the mate
Could affect me then, without being
flung at me
Country can go on very well without so
much speech-making
Country enclosed us to make us feel
snug in our own importance
Country prizing ornaments higher than
qualities
Courage to grapple with his pride and
open his heart was wanting
Cover of action as an escape from
perplexity
Cowardice is even worse for nations
than for individual men
Crazy zigzag of policy in almost every
stroke (of history)
Creatures that wait for circumstances
to bring the change
Critical fashion of intimates who know
as well as hear
Critical in their first glance at a
prima donna
Cupid clipped of wing is a destructive
parasite
Curious thing would be if curious
things should fail to happen
Dahlia, the perplexity to her sister's
heart, lay stretched....
Damsel who has lost the third volume of
an exciting novel
Dangerous things are uttered after the
third glass
Dark-eyed Renee was not beauty but
attraction
Days when you lay on your back and the
sky rained apples
Dead Britons are all Britons, but live
Britons are not quite brothers
Death is always next door
Death within which welcomed a death
without
Death is only the other side of the
ditch
Death is our common cloak; but Calamity
individualizes
Debit was eloquent, he was unanswerable
Decency's a dirty petticoat in the
Garden of Innocence
Decent insincerity
Decline to practise hypocrisy
Dedicated to the putrid of the upper
circle
Deeds only are the title
Deep as a mother's, pure as a virgin's,
fiery as a saint's
Defiance of foes and (what was harder
to brave) of friends
Delay in thine undertaking Is disaster
of thy own making
Depending for dialogue upon perpetual
fresh supplies of scandal
Depreciating it after the fashion of
chartered hypocrites.
Desire of it destroyed it
Despises hostile elements and goes
unpunished
Despises the pomades and curling-irons
of modern romance
Determine that the future is in our
debt, and draw on it
Detestable feminine storms enveloping
men weak enough
Detested titles, invented by the
English
Developing stiff, solid, unobtrusive
men, and very personable women
Dialectical stiffness
Dialogue between Nature and
Circumstance
Did not know the nature of an oath, and
was dismissed
Didn't say a word No use in talking
about feelings
Dignitary, and he passed under the
bondage of that position
Dignity of sulking so seductive to the
wounded spirit of man
Discover the writers in a day when all
are writing!
Discreet play with her eyelids in our
encounters
Disqualification of constantly
offending prejudices
Dissent rings out finely, and approval
is a feeble murmur
Distaste for all exercise once
pleasurable
Distinguished by his not allowing
himself to be provoked
Distrust us, and it is a declaration of
war
Dithyrambic inebriety of narration
Divided lovers in presence
Do I serve my hand? or, Do I serve my
heart?
Do you judge of heroes as of lesser
men?
Dogmatic arrogance of a just but
ignorant man
Dogs die more decently than we men
Dogs' eyes have such a sick look of
love
Dose he had taken was not of the
sweetest
Drank to show his disdain of its powers
Dreaded as a scourge, hailed as a
refreshment (Scandal-sheet)
Dreads our climate and coffee too much
to attempt the voyage
Drink is their death's river, rolling
them on helpless
Dudley was not gifted to read behind
words and looks
Earl of Cressett fell from his coach-box
in a fit
Eating, like scratching, only wants a
beginning
Eccentric behaviour in trifles
Effort to be reticent concerning Nevil,
and communicative
Efforts to weary him out of his project
were unsuccessful
Elderly martyr for the advancement of
his juniors
Embarrassments of an uncongenial
employment
Emilia alone of the party was as a blot
to her
Eminently servile is the tolerated
lawbreaker
Empanelled to deliver verdicts upon the
ways of women
Empty stomachs are foul counsellors
Empty magnanimity which his uncle
presented to him
Enamoured young men have these notions
Enemy's laugh is a bugle blown in the
night
Energy to something, that was not to be
had in a market
England's the foremost country of the
globe
English antipathy to babblers
English maids are domesticated savage
animals
Enjoys his luxuries and is ashamed of
his laziness
Enthusiasm struck and tightened the
loose chord of scepticism
Enthusiasm has the privilege of not
knowing monotony
Enthusiast, when not lyrical, is
perilously near to boring
Envy of the man of positive knowledge
Equally acceptable salted when it
cannot be had fresh
Everlastingly in this life the better
pays for the worse
Every failure is a step advanced
Every woman that's married isn't in
love with her husband
Every church of the city lent its iron
tongue to the peal
Everywhere the badge of subjection is a
poor stomach
Exceeding variety and quantity of
things money can buy
Excellent is pride; but oh! be sure of
its foundations
Excess of a merit is a capital offence
in morality
Excited, glad of catastrophe if it but
killed monotony
Expectations dupe us, not trust
Explaining of things to a dull head
Externally soft and polished,
internally hard and relentless
Exuberant anticipatory trustfulness
Exult in imagination of an escape up to
the moment of capture
Eyes of a lover are not his own; but
his hands and lips are
Face betokening the perpetual smack of
lemon
Failures oft are but advising friends
Faith works miracles. At least it
allows time for them
Fantastical
Far higher quality is the will that can
subdue itself to wait
Fast growing to be an eccentric by
profession
Fatal habit of superiority stopped his
tongue
Father and she were aware of one
another without conversing
Father used to say, four hours for a
man, six for a woman
Favour can't help coming by rotation
Fear nought so much as Fear itself
Feel no shame that I do not feel!
Feel they are not up to the people they
are mixing with
Feeling, nothing beyond a lively
interest in her well-being
Feigned utter condemnation to make
partial comfort acceptable
Fell to chatting upon the nothings
agreeably and seriously
Feminine pity, which is nearer to
contempt than to tenderness
Feminine; coming when she willed and
flying when wanted
Festive board provided for them by the
valour of their fathers
Few feelings are single on this globe
Few men can forbear to tell a spicy
story of their friends
Fiddle harmonics on the sensual strings
Fine eye for celestially directed
consequences is ever haunted
Fine Shades were still too dominant at
Brookfield
Finishing touches to the negligence
Fire smoothes the creases
Fires in the grates went through the
ceremony of warming nobody
Fit of Republicanism in the nursery
Flashes bits of speech that catch men
in their unguarded corner
Flung him, pitied him, and passed on
Foamy top is offered and gulped as
equivalent to an idea
Foe can spoil my face; he beats me if
he spoils my temper
Foist on you their idea of your idea at
the moment
Fond, as they say, of his glass and his
girl
Foolish trick of thinking for herself
For 'tis Ireland gives England her
soldiers, her generals too
Forewarn readers of this history that
there is no plot in it
Forgetfulness is like a closing sea
Fortitude leaned so much upon the irony
Forty seconds too fast, as if it were a
capital offence
Found by the side of the bed,
inanimate, and pale as a sister of
death
Found it difficult to forgive her his
own folly
Found that he 'cursed better upon
water'
Fourth of the Georges
Frankness as an armour over wariness
Fretted by his relatives he cannot be
much of a giant
Friend he would not shake off, but
could not well link with
Friendship, I fancy, means one heart
between two
From head to foot nothing better than a
moan made visible
Frozen vanity called pride, which does
not seek to be revenged
Full-o'-Beer's a hasty chap
Fun, at any cost, is the one object
worth a shot
Further she read, "Which is the coward
among us?"
Generally he noticed nothing
Gentlefolks like straight-forwardness
in their inferiors
Gentleman who does so much 'cause he
says so little
Gentleman in a good state of
preservation
Get back what we give
Giant Vanity urged Giant Energy to make
use of Giant Duplicity
Give our courage as hostage for the
fulfilment of what we hope
Give our consciences to the keeping of
the parsons
Given up his brains for a lodging to a
single idea
Glimpse of her whole life in the horrid
tomb of his embrace
Gone to pieces with an injured lover's
babble
Good and evil work together in this
world
Good nature, and means no more harm
than he can help
Good nerve to face the scene which he
is certain will be enacted
Good-bye to sorrow for a while--Keep
your tears for the living
Good maxim for the wrathful--speak not
at all
Good jokes are not always good policy
Goodish sort of fellow; good horseman,
good shot, good character
Gossip always has some solid
foundation, however small
Government of brain; not sufficient
Insurrection of heart
Gradations appear to be unknown to you
Graduated naturally enough the finer
stages of self-deception
Grand air of pitying sadness
Gratitude never was a woman's gift
Gratuitous insult
Gravely reproaching the tobacconist for
the growing costliness of cigars
Greater our successes, the greater the
slaves we become
Greatest of men; who have to learn from
the loss of the woman
Grief of an ill-fortuned passion of his
youth
Grimaces at a government long-nosed to
no purpose
Grossly unlike in likeness (portraits)
Habit had legalized his union with her
Habit of antedating his sagacity
Habit, what a sacred and admirable
thing it is
Had got the trick of lying, through
fear of telling the truth
Had come to be her lover through being
her husband
Had Shakespeare's grandmother three
Christian names?
Had taken refuge in their opera-glasses
Half-truth that we may put on the mask
of the whole
Half a dozen dozen left
Half designingly permitted her trouble
to be seen
Happiness in love is a match between
ecstasy and compliance
Happy the woman who has not more to
speak
Happy in privation and suffering if
simply we can accept beauty
Hard to bear, at times unbearable
Hard enough for a man to be married to
a fool
Hard men have sometimes a warm
affection for dogs
Haremed opinion of the unfitness of
women
Hated one thing alone--which was
'bother'
Hated tears, considering them a clog to
all useful machinery
Hates a compromise
Haunted many pillows
Have her profile very frequently while
I am conversing with her
Having contracted the fatal habit of
irony
He was not alive for his own pleasure
He, by insisting, made me a rebel
He bowed to facts
He grunted that a lying clock was
hateful to him
He has been tolerably honest, Tom, for
a man and a lover
He kept saying to himself, 'to-morrow I
will tell'
He postponed it to the next minute and
the next
He prattled, in the happy ignorance of
compulsion
He was in love, and subtle love will
not be shamed and smothered