Anthony Trollope Quotes

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

A woman's life is not perfect or whole till she has added herself to a husband. Nor is a man's life perfect or whole till he has added to himself a wife.

When the ivy has found its tower, when the delicate creeper has found its strong wall, we know how the parasite plants grow and prosper.

Easy reading requires hard writing.

When I sit down to write a novel I do not at all know, and I do not very much care, how it is to end.

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

I think I owe my life to cork soles.

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.

It is the highest and most legitimate pride of an Englishman to have the letters M.P. written after his name. No selection from the alphabet, no doctorship, no fellowship, be it of ever so learned or royal a society, no knightship,--not though it be of the Garter,--confers so fair an honour.

A man's mind will very gradually refuse to make itself up until it is driven and compelled by emergency.

Words spoken cannot be recalled, and many a man and many a woman who has spoken a word at once regretted, are far too proud to express that regret.

There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.

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.

It is no good any longer having any opinion upon anything.

When a man is ill nothing is so important to him as his own illness.

Romance is very pretty in novels, but the romance of a life is always a melancholy matter. They are most happy who have no story to tell.

Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.

And though it is much to be a nobleman, it is more to be a gentleman.

It is a grand thing to rise in the world. The ambition to do so is the very salt of the earth. It is the parent of all enterprise, and the cause of all improvement.

Success is a poison that should only be taken late in life and then only in small doses.

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

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

There is no human bliss equal to twelve hours of work with only six hours in which to do it.

The best education is to be had at a price, as well as the best broadcloth.

I have no ambition to surprise my reader. Castles with unknown passages are not compatible with my homely muse.

Oxford is the most dangerous place to which a young man can be sent.

The difference of the English and Irish character is nowhere more plainly discerned than in their respective kitchens. With the former, this apartment is probably the cleanest, and certainly the most orderly, in the house.... An Irish kitchenis usually a temple dedicated to the goddess of disorder; and, too often, joined with her, is the potent deity of dirt.

Though they were Liberals they were not democrats; nor yet infidels.

I believe journalism is coming to be regarded as quite a respectable occupation for gentlemen nowadays.

On board ship there are many sources of joy of which the land knows nothing. You may flirt and dance at sixty; and if you are awkward in the turn of a valse, you may put it down to the motion of the ship. You need wear no gloves, and may drink your soda-and-brandy without being ashamed of it.

For there is no folly so great as keeping one's sorrows hidden.

Short accounts make long friends.

Passionate love, I take it, rarely lasts long, and is very troublesome while it does last. Mutual esteem is very much more valuable.

A man's own dinner is to himself so important that he cannot bring himself to believe that it is a matter utterly indifferent to anyone else.

He was one of those men who, as in youth they are never very young, so in age are they never very old.

High rank and soft manners may not always belong to a true heart.

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.

When a man wants to write a book full of unassailable facts, he always goes to the British Museum.

It is my purpose to disclose the mystery at once, and to ask you to look for your interest,--should you choose to go on with my chronicle,--simply in the conduct of my persons, during this disclosure to others.

A man's love, till it has been chastened and fastened by the feeling of duty which marriage brings with it, is instigated mainly by the difficulty of pursuit.

A novelist's characters must be with him as he lies down to sleep, and as he wakes from his dreams. He must learn to hate them and to love them.

It is hard to conceive that the old, whose thoughts have been all thought out, should ever love to live alone. Solitude is surely for the young, who have time before them for the execution of schemes, and who can, therefore, take delight in thinking

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.

There's nothing like going on with a 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.

It is very difficult to say nowadays where the suburbs of London come to an end and where the country begins. The railways, instead of enabling Londoners to live in the country have turned the countryside into a city.

I hold that gentleman to be the best-dressed whose dress no one observes.

A physician should take his fee without letting his left hand know what his right is doing; it should be taken without a thought, without a look, without a move of the facial muscles; the true physician should hardly be aware that the last friendly grasp of the hand has been made more precious by the touch of gold