Silas Marner Quotes
"In the days when the spinning-wheels hummed busily in the farmhouses—and even great ladies, clothed in silk and thread-lace, had their toy spinning-wheels of polished oak—there might be seen in districts far away among the lanes, or deep in the bosom of the hills, certain pallid undersized men, who, by the side of the brawny country-folk, looked like the remnants of a disinherited race."
"No one knew where wandering men had their homes or their origin; and how was a man to be explained unless you at least knew somebody who knew his father and mother?"
"To the peasants of old times, the world outside their own direct experience was a region of vagueness and mystery."
"All cleverness, whether in the rapid use of that difficult instrument the tongue, or in some other art unfamiliar to villagers, was in itself suspicious."
"His life, before he came to Raveloe, had been filled with the movement, the mental activity, and the close fellowship, which, in that day as in this, marked the life of an artisan early incorporated in a narrow religious sect."
"The sense of security more frequently springs from habit than from conviction, and for this reason it often subsists after such a change in the conditions as might have been expected to suggest alarm."
"The lapse of time during which a given event has not happened, is, in this logic of habit, constantly alleged as a reason why the event should never happen, even when the lapse of time is precisely the added condition which makes the event imminent."
"A man will tell you that he has worked in a mine for forty years unhurt by an accident as a reason why he should apprehend no danger, though the roof is beginning to sink."
"The lives of those rural forefathers, whom we are apt to think very prosaic figures—men whose only work was to ride round their land, getting heavier and heavier in their saddles, and who passed the rest of their days in the half-listless gratification of senses dulled by monotony—had a certain pathos in them nevertheless."
"The light of his faith quite put out, and his affections made desolate, he had clung with all the force of his nature to his work and his money; and like all objects to which a man devotes himself, they had fashioned him into correspondence with themselves."
"There's allays two 'pinions; there's the 'pinion a man has of himsen, and there's the 'pinion other folks have on him."
"We must give and take. You're both right and you're both wrong, as I say."
"Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without us."
"The fountains of human love and of faith in a divine love had not yet been unlocked."
"I suppose one reason why we are seldom able to comfort our neighbours with our words is that our goodwill gets adulterated, in spite of ourselves, before it can pass our lips."
"But Christmas puddings, brawn, and abundance of spirituous liquors, throwing the mental originality into the channel of nightmare, are great preservatives against a dangerous spontaneity of waking thought."
"The evil principle deprecated in that religion is the orderly sequence by which the seed brings forth a crop after its kind."
"Favourable Chance, I fancy, is the god of all men who follow their own devices instead of obeying a law they believe in."
"Let him betray his friend's confidence, and he will adore that same cunning complexity called Chance, which gives him the hope that his friend will never know."
"But the party on Christmas-day, being a strictly family party, was not the preeminently brilliant celebration of the season at the Red House."
"Even Miss Nancy's refusal of her cousin Gilbert Osgood (on the ground solely that he was her cousin), though it had grieved her aunt greatly, had not in the least cooled the preference which had determined her to leave Nancy several of her hereditary ornaments, let Gilbert's future wife be whom she might."
"Everything belonging to Miss Nancy was of delicate purity and nattiness."
"Her light-brown hair was cropped behind like a boy’s, and was dressed in front in a number of flat rings, that lay quite away from her face."
"Miss Nancy stood complete in her silvery twilled silk, her lace tucker, her coral necklace, and coral eardrops."
"She actually said 'mate' for 'meat,' ' ’appen' for 'perhaps,' and 'oss' for 'horse.'"
"There is hardly a servant-maid in these days who is not better informed than Miss Nancy."
"She had the essential attributes of a lady—high veracity, delicate honour in her dealings, deference to others, and refined personal habits."
"The pretty uns do for fly-catchers—they keep the men off us."
"Mr. Have-your-own-way is the best husband, and the only one I’d ever promise to obey."
"The doctor’s here; but say quietly what you want him for."
"It’s a woman—she’s dead, I think—dead in the snow at the Stone-pits—not far from my door."
"The door was open, and it walked in over the snow, like as if it had been a little starved robin."
"It’s come to me—I’ve a right to keep it."
"No, to be sure; you’ll have a right to her, if you’re a father to her, and bring her up according."
"It’s a Bible name," said Silas, old ideas recurring.
"She’s fondest o’ you. She wants to go o’ your lap, I’ll be bound."
"Go, then: take her, Master Marner; you can put the things on, and then you can say as you’ve done for her from the first of her coming to you."
"I waited for you, as I’d come so far," he said, speaking first.
"She’s dead—has been dead for hours, I should say."
"What sort of woman is she?" said Godfrey, feeling the blood rush to his face.
"The old home's gone; I've no home but this now."
"We've been used to be happy together every day, and I can't think o' no happiness without him."
"It's the will o' Them above as a many things should be dark to us."
"God gave her to me because you turned your back upon her, and He looks upon her as mine: you've no right to her!"
"I can never be sorry, father. I shouldn't know what to think on or to wish for with fine things about me, as I haven't been used to."
"I'm afraid we must give up the hope of having her for a daughter."
"It isn't a big street like this. I never was easy i' this street myself, but I was fond o' Lantern Yard."
"We shall do very well—Eppie and me 'ull do well enough."
"But there's some things as I've never felt i' the dark about, and they're mostly what comes i' the day's work."
"Since the time the child was sent to me and I've come to love her as myself, I've had light enough to trusten by."