It was terribly beautiful to Tess today, for since her eyes last fell upon it she had learnt that the serpent hisses where the sweet birds sing.

A novel is an impression, not an argument; and there the matter must rest.

You don't talk quite like a girl who has had no advantages.

When women are secret they are secret indeed; and more often then not they only begin to be secret with the advent of a second lover.

War makes good history but peace is poor reading.

Many of her thoughts were perfect syllogisms; unluckily they always remained thoughts. Only a few were irrational assumptions; but, unfortunately, they were the ones which most frequently grew into deeds

To dance with a man is to concentrate a twelvemonth's regulation fire upon him in the fragment of an hour. To pass to courtship without acquaintance, to pass to marriage without courtship, is a skipping of terms reserved for those alone who tread this royal road.