Top 380 Elizabeth Gaskell Quotes (2026 Update)
Page 3 of 8

101. “All the earth, though it were full of kind hearts, is but a desolation and desert place to a mother when her only child is absent.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

102. “Oh, don’t be so wise and stupid.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

103. “Miss Benson had the power; which some people have, of carrying her wishes through to fulfillment; her will was strong, her sense was excellent, and people yielded to her – they did not know why.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

104. “For all his pain, he longed to see the author of it. Although he hated Margaret at times, when he thought of that gentle familiar attitude and all the attendant circumstances, he had a restless desire to renew her picture in his mind – a longing for the very atmosphere she breathed. He was in the Charybdis of passion, and must perforce circle and circle ever nearer round the fatal centre.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

105. “But when she got into her own, she locked the door, and sate down to cry unwonted tears.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

106. “But the trees were gorgeous in their autumnal leafiness – the warm odours of flowers and herb came sweet upon the sense.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

107. “She used to sit long hours upon the beach, gazing intently on the waves as they chafed with perpetual motion against the pebbly shore, – or she looked out upon the more distant heave, and sparkle against the sky, and heard, without being conscious of hearing, the eternal psalm, which went up continually.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

108. “He could not – say rather, he would not – deny himself the chance of the pleasure of seeing Margaret. He had no end in this but the present gratification.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

109. “Pray don’t go into similes, Margaret; you have led us off once already,′ said her father, smiling, yet uneasy at the thought that they were detaining Mr. Thornton against his will, which was a mistake; for he rather liked it, as long as Margaret would talk, although what she said only irritated him.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

110. “A girl in love will do a good deal.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

111. “Aye, aye! good-natured, jolly, full of fun; there are a number of other names for the good qualities the devil leaves his children, as bait to catch gudgeons with. D’ye think folk could be led astray by one who was every way bad?”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

112. “It seems strange to think, that what gives us most hope for the future should be called Dolores, said Margaret.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

113. “A solitary life cherishes mere fancies until they become manias.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

114. “I had such a mother as few are blest with; a woman of strong power, and firm resolve.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

115. “But these factory people, who on earth wears cotton that can afford linen?”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

116. “I put it to the touch once, and I lost it all. Let her go – with her stony heart, and her beauty; – how set and terrible her look is now, for all her loveliness of feature! She is afraid I shall speak what will require some stern repression. Let her go. Beauty and heiress as she may be, she will find it hard to meet with a truer heart than mine. Let her go!”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

117. “There have been such strange unexpected changes in my life during these last two years, that I feel more than ever that it is not worth while to calculate too closely what I should do if any future event took place. I try to think only upon the present.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

118. “Yet is was very difficult to separate her interpretation, and keep it distinct from his meaning.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

119. “The French girls would tell you, to believe that you were pretty would make you so.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

120. “Margaret found that the indifferent, careless conversations of one who, however kind, was not too warm and anxious a sympathizer, did her good.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

121. “She handed him his cup of tea with the proud air of an unwilling slave...”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

122. “As far as she could see, her life was ordained to be lonely, and she must subdue her nature to her life, and, if possible, bring the two into harmony. When she could employ herself in fiction, all was comparatively well. The characters were her companions in the quiet hours, which she spent utterly alone, unable often to stir out of doors for many days together.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

123. “When prayers were ended, and his Mother had wished him good-night with that long steady look of hers which conveyed no expression of the tenderness that was in her heart, but yet had all the intensity of a blessing.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

124. “He felt every day more and more certain that she, and she alone, could make him happy.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

125. “Our Lord Jesus was not above letting folk minister to Him, for he knew how happy it makes one to do aught for another. It’s the happiest work on earth.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

126. “Daniel was very like a child in all the parts of his character. He was strongly affected by whatever was present, and apt to forget the absent. He acted on impulse, and too often had reason to be sorry for it; but he hated his sorrow too much to let it teach him wisdom for the future.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

127. “Looking back upon the year’s accumulated heap of troubles, Margaret wondered how they had been borne. If she could have anticipated them, how she would have shrunk away and hid herself from the coming time! And yet day by day had, of itself, and by itself, been very endurable – small, keen, bright little spots of positive enjoyment having come sparkling into the very middle of sorrows.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

128. “If they came sorrowing, and wanting sympathy in a complicated trouble like the present, then they would be felt as a shadow in all these houses of intimate acquaintances, not friends.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

129. “She never called her son by any name but John; ‘love’ and ‘dear’, and such like terms, were reserved for Fanny.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

130. “It was a stinging pleasure to be in the room with her, and feel her presence.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

131. “He was lashing himself again into an impotent rage, painful to a son to witness.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

132. “He had married a delicate fine London lady; it was one of those perplexing marriages of which one cannot understand the reasons.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

133. “Many a one is not well for a time; and with good advice gets better and stronger than ever.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

134. “I am punished. Only let me hope.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

135. “His laws once broken, His justice and the very nature of those laws bring the immutable retribution; but if we turn penitently to Him, He enables us to bear our punishment with a meek and docile heart, ’for His mercy endureth forever.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

136. “Don’t be afraid,” she said, coldly, “ as far as love may go she may be worthy of you. It must have taken a good deal to overcome her pride. Don’t be afraid, John.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

137. “Margaret liked this smile; it was the first thing she had admired in this new friend of her father’s; and the opposition of character, shown in all these details of appearance she had just been noticing, seemed to explain the attraction they evidently felt towards each other.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

138. “She stood by the tea-table in a light-coloured muslin gown, which had a good deal of pink about it. She looked as if she was not attending to the conversation, but solely busy with the tea-cups, among which her round ivory hands moved with pretty, noiseless, daintiness.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

139. “Roger let go; they were now on firm ground, and he did not wish any watchers to think that he was exercising any constraint over his father; and this quiet obedience to his impatient commands did more to soothe the Squire than anything else could have effected just then.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

140. “She did not answer. She could not tell what words to use. She was afraid of saying anything, lest the passion of anger, dislike, indignation – whatever it was that was boiling up in her breast – should find vent in cries and screams, or worse, in raging words that could never be forgotten. It was as if the piece of solid ground on which she stood had broken from the shore, and she was drifting out to the infinite sea alone.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

141. “If all the world spoke, acted, or kept silence with intent to deceive, – if dearest interests were at stake, and dearest lives in peril, – if no one should ever know of her truth or her falsehood to measure out their honour or contempt for her by, straight alone where she stood, in the presence of God, she prayed that she might have strength to speak and act the truth for evermore.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

142. “Well, now, sir, I put it to yo’, being a parson, and having been in th’ preaching line, and having had to try and bring folk o’er to what yo’ thought was a right way o’ thinking – did yo’ begin by calling ‘em fools and such like, or didn’t yo’ rayther give ’em some kind words at first, to make ’em ready for to listen and be convinced, if they could;.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

143. “It was one of Mrs. Hale’s fitful days, when everything was a difficulty and a hardship; and Mr Lennox’s appearance took this shape, although secretly she felt complimented by his thinking it worthwhile to call.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

144. “It is part of His plan to send suffering to bring out a higher good; but surely it’s also part of His plan that as much of the burden of suffering as can be should be lightened by those whom it is His pleasure to make happy and content in their own circumstances.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

145. “Her mouth was wide; no rosebud that could only open just enough to let out a ‘yes’ and ‘no’, and ‘an’t please you, sir’.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

146. “Were all men equal to-night, some would get the start by rising an hour earlier to-morrow.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

147. “I declare I don’t know which of her three lovers she may not summon at the very last moment to act the part of bridegroom. I’m determined to be surprised at nothing; and will give her away with a good grace to whoever comes.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

148. “It is bad to believe you in error. It would be infinitely worse to have known you a hypocrite.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

149. “She took her mind away with a wrench from the recollection of the past to the bright serene contemplation of the hopeful future.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell

150. “He went away as if weights were tied to every limb that bore him from her.”

— Elizabeth Gaskell