Top 70 Ann Radcliffe Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “I never trust people’s assertions, I always judge of them by their actions.”

— Ann Radcliffe

2. “One act of beneficence, one act of real usefulness, is worth all the abstract sentiment in the world.”

— Ann Radcliffe

3. “What is acquired without labor is seldom worth acquiring at all.”

— Ann Radcliffe

4. “Fate sits on these dark battlements and frowns, And as the portal opens to receive me, A voice in hollow murmurs through the courts Tells of a nameless deed.”

— Ann Radcliffe

5. “When the mind has once begun to yield to the weakness of superstition, trifles impress it with the force of conviction.”

— Ann Radcliffe

6. “There is no accounting for tastes.”

— Ann Radcliffe

7. “The world ridicules a passion which it seldom feels; its scenes, and its interests, distract the mind, deprave the taste, corrupt the heart, and love cannot exist in a heart that has lost the meek dignity of innocence.”

— Ann Radcliffe

8. “The refreshing pleasure from the first view of nature, after the pain of illness, and the confinement of a sick-chamber, is above the conceptions, as well as the descriptions, of those in health.”

— Ann Radcliffe

9. “To a generous mind few circumstances are more afflicting than a discovery of perfidy in those whom we have trusted...”

— Ann Radcliffe

10. “Ignorance of true pleasure more frequently than temptation to that which is false, leads to vice.”

— Ann Radcliffe

11. “At first a small line of inconceivable splendour emerged on the horizon, which, quickly expanding, the sun appeared in all of his glory, unveiling the whole face of nature, vivifying every colour of the landscape, and sprinkling the dewy earth with glittering light.”

— Ann Radcliffe

12. “When her mind was discomposed... a book was the opiate that lulled it to repose.”

— Ann Radcliffe

13. “If the weak hand, that has recorded this tale, has, by its scenes, beguiled the mourner of one hour of sorrow, or, by its moral, taught him to sustain it – the effort, however humble, has not been vain, nor is the writer unrewarded.”

— Ann Radcliffe

14. “The world,′ said he, pursuing this train of thought, ’ridicules a passion which it seldom feels; its scenes, and its interests, distract the mind, deprave the taste, corrupt the heart, and love cannot exist in a heart that has lost the meek dignity of innocence. Virtue and taste are nearly the same, for virtue is little more than active taste, and the most delicate affections of each combine in real love.”

— Ann Radcliffe

15. “Employment is the surest antidote to sorrow.”

— Ann Radcliffe

16. “Happiness arises in a state of peace, not of tumult.”

— Ann Radcliffe

17. “Such is the inconsistency of real love, that it is always awake to suspicion, however unreasonable; always requiring new assurances from the object of its interest.”

— Ann Radcliffe

18. “What are riches – grandeur – health itself, to the luxury of a pure conscience, the health of the soul; – and what the sufferings of poverty, disappointment, despair – to the anguish of an afflicted one!”

— Ann Radcliffe

19. “Do you believe your heart to be, indeed, so hardened, that you can look without emotion on the suffering, to which you would condemn me?”

— Ann Radcliffe

20. “There are some few instances in which it is virtuous to disobey.”

— Ann Radcliffe

21. “How strange it is, that a fool or knave, with riches, should be treated with more respect by the world, than a good man, or a wise man in poverty!”

— Ann Radcliffe

22. “Happiness has this essential difference from what is commonly called pleasure, that virtue forms its basis, and virtue being the offspring of reason, may be expected to produce uniformity of effect.”

— Ann Radcliffe

23. “Poverty cannot deprive us of many consolations. It cannot rob us of the affection we have for each other, or degrade us in our own opinion, of in that of any person, whose opinion we ought to value.”

— Ann Radcliffe

24. “When justice happens to oppose prejudice, we are apt to believe it virtuous to disobey her.”

— Ann Radcliffe

25. “But no matter for that, you can be tolerably happy, perhaps, notwithstanding; but as for guessing how happy I am, or knowing anything about the matter, – O! its quite beyond what you can understand.”

— Ann Radcliffe

26. “The passions are the seeds of vices as well as of virtues, from which either may spring, accordingly as they are nurtured. Unhappy they who have never been taught the art to govern them!”

— Ann Radcliffe

27. “Virtue and taste are nearly the same, for virtue is little more than active taste, and the most delicate affections of each combine in real love.”

— Ann Radcliffe

28. “Never will I give my hand where my heart does not accompany it.”

— Ann Radcliffe

29. “And since, in our passage through this world, painful circumstances occur more frequently than pleasing ones, and since our sense of evil is, I fear, more acute than our sense of good, we become the victims of our feelings, unless we can in some degree command them.”

— Ann Radcliffe

30. “I ought not to doubt the steadiness of your affection, yet such is the inconsistency of real love, that it is always awake to suspicion, however unreasonable; always requiring new assurances from the object of its interest, and thus it is, that I always feel revived, as by a new conviction, when your words tell me I am dear to you; and, wanting these, I relapse into doubt, and too often into despondency.”

— Ann Radcliffe

31. “Why all this terror?′ said he, in a tremulous voice. ‘Hear me, Emily: I come not to alarm you; no, by Heaven! I love you too well- too well for my own peace.”

— Ann Radcliffe

32. “To discover depravity in those whom we have loved, is one of the most exquisite tortures to a virtuous mind, and the conviction is often rejected before it is finally admitted.”

— Ann Radcliffe

33. “It is dismal coming home, when there is nobody to welcome one!”

— Ann Radcliffe

34. “She was tranquil, but it was with the quietness of exhausted grief, not of resignation; and she looked back upon the past, and awaited the future, with a kind of out-breathed despair.”

— Ann Radcliffe

35. “I tasted too what was called the sweet of revenge – but it was transient, it expired even with the object, that provoked it.”

— Ann Radcliffe

36. “How short a period often reverses the character of our sentiments, rendering that which yesterday we despised, today desirable.”

— Ann Radcliffe

37. “Tremblingly alive to a sense of delight, and unchilled by disappointment, the young heart welcomes every feeling, not simply painful, with a romantic expectation that it will expand into bliss.”

— Ann Radcliffe

38. “Sentiment is a disgrace, instead of an ornament, unless it lead us to good actions.”

— Ann Radcliffe

39. “Virtue and taste are nearly the same, for virtue is little more than active taste, and the most delicate affections of each combine in real love. How then are we to look for love in great cities, where selfishness, dissipation, and insincerity supply the place of tenderness, simplicity and truth?”

— Ann Radcliffe

40. “Wisdom can boast no higher attainment than happiness.”

— Ann Radcliffe

41. “It seemed as if his desire of her affection increased with his knowledge of the loss of it; and the very circumstance which should have roused his aversion, by a strange perversity of disposition, appeared to heighten his passion, and to make him think it impossible he could exist without her.”

— Ann Radcliffe

42. “What has a man’s face to do with his character? Can a man of good character help having a disagreeable face?”

— Ann Radcliffe

43. “Conquer such whims, and endeavor to strengthen your mind. No existence is more contemptible than that, which is embittered by fear.”

— Ann Radcliffe

44. “But St. Aubert had too much good sense to prefer a charm to a virtue...”

— Ann Radcliffe

45. “The sweetness and fine expression of her voice attracted his attention to her figure, which had a distinguished air of delicacy and grace; but her face was concealed in her veil. So much indeed was he fascinated by the voice, that a most painful curiosity was excited as to her countenance, which he fancied must express all the sensibility of character that the modulation of her tones indicated.”

— Ann Radcliffe

46. “She had passed the spring of youth, but her wit prolonged the triumph of its reign, and they mutually assisted the fame of each other; for those, who were charmed by her loveliness, spoke with enthusiasm of her talents; and others, who admired her playful imagination, declared, that her personal graces were unrivalled.”

— Ann Radcliffe

47. “But a terror of this nature, as it occupies and expands the mind, and elevates it to high expectation, is purely sublime, and leads us, by a kind of fascination, to seek even the object, from which we appear to shrink.”

— Ann Radcliffe

48. “I am warned of evils that await me,” continued Vivaldi, musing; “of events that are regularly fulfilled; the being who warns me, crosses my path perpetually, yet, with the cunning of a demon, as constantly eludes my grasp, and baffles my pursuit! It is incomprehensible, by what means he glides thus away from my eye, and fades, as if into air, at my approach! He is repeatedly in my presence, yet is never to be found!”

— Ann Radcliffe

49. “There is some comfort in dying surrounded by one’s children.”

— Ann Radcliffe

50. “Even her romances, forming a class apart from all, which had gone before, and unapproached by imitators, wore a certain air of antiquity, and seemed scarcely to belong to the present age.”

— Ann Radcliffe