Thomas Hardy

“If Galileo had said in verse that the world moved, the inquisition might have let him alone.”

“Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure can be acquired by art.”

“Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.”

“Patience, that blending of moral courage with physical timidity.”

“I was court-martial in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence.”

“I am the family face flesh perishes, I live on.”

“Fear is the mother of foresight.”

“My argument is that War makes rattling good history but Peace is poor reading.”

“The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfillment of that hope never entirely removes.”

“It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.”

“Cruelty is the law pervading all nature and society and we can't get out of it if we would.”

“The main object of religion is not to get a man into heaven, but to get heaven into him.”

“Like the British Constitution, she owes her success in practice to her inconsistencies in principle.”

“Yes quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down you'd treat if met where any bar is, or help to half-a-crown.”