Thomas HardyThinkers

Beauty is not in the thing, but in what the thing symbolized.

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

Dialect is those terrible marks of the beast to the truly genteel.

Evil sneaks up on you — The resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible.

Letter writing is one of night's objects. Nine-tenths of the letters in which people speak unreservedly of their inmost feelings are written after ten at night.

London is a city that appears not to see itself: Each individual is conscious or himself; but nobody is conscious of themselves collectively, except perhaps some poor gaper who stares round with a half-idiotic aspect.

Love is no place for discretion — a lover without indiscretion is no lover at all.

A Lover is no lover who shows discretion — a lover without indiscretion is no lover at all.

The Novel is an impression, not an argument.

The Novelist is, along with the poet, one who shows the the sorriness underlying the grandest things and the grandeur underlying the sorriest things.