110+ Elizabeth Gaskell Quotes (Social, Engaging And Realistic)

Elizabeth Gaskell was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. She is best known for her novels Cranford and North and South, which explored the lives of the working class and the struggles of industrialization in England. Her works often focused on the roles of women in society, and she was a strong advocate of social justice.

Top 10 Elizabeth Gaskell Quotes

1. To be sure a stepmother to a girl is a different thing to a second wife to a man!
2. He had not an ounce of superfluous flesh on his bones, and leanness goes a great way towards gentility.
3. A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.
4. Those who are happy and successful themselves are too apt to make light of the misfortunes of others.
5. Anticipation was the soul of enjoyment.
6. There is nothing like wounded affection for giving poignancy to anger.
7. But the future must be met, however stern and iron it be.
8. I'll not listen to reason. Reason always means what someone else has got to say.
9. One may be clogged with honey and unable to rise and fly.
10. I would far rather have two or three lilies of the valley gathered for me by a person I like, than the most expensive bouquet that could be bought!

Elizabeth Gaskell Short Quotes

• How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly!
• I'll not listen to reason... reason always means what someone else has got to say.
• A little credulity helps one on through life very smoothly.
• I know you despise me; allow me to say, it is because you don't understand me.
• Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.
• It is bad to believe you in error. It would be infinitely worse to have known you a hypocrite.
• A great matter calls her son with terms like deal, and love.
• A man is so in the way in the house.
• A solitary life cherishes mere fancies until they become manias.
• What's the use of watching? A watched pot never boils.

Elizabeth Gaskell Famous Quotes And Sayings

I value my own independence so highly that I can fancy no degradation greater than that of having another man perpetually directing and advising and lecturing me, or even planning too closely in any way about my actions. He might be the wisest of men, or the most powerful - I should equally rebel and resent his interference. — Elizabeth Gaskell

He shrank from hearing Margaret's very name mentioned; he, while he blamed her--while he was jealous of her--while he renounced her--he loved her sorely, in spite of himself. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Miss Jenkyns wore a cravat, and a little bonnet like a jockey-cap, and altogether had the appearance of a strong-minded woman; although she would have despised the modern idea of women being equal to men. Equal, indeed! she knew they were superior. — Elizabeth Gaskell

People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people's minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms and virtues. — Elizabeth Gaskell

My heart burnt within me with indignation and grief; we could think of nothing else. All night long we had only snatches of sleep, waking up perpetually to the sense of a great shock and grief. Every one is feeling the same. I never knew so universal a feeling. — Elizabeth Gaskell

And so she shuddered away from the threat of his enduring love. What did he mean? Had she not the power to daunt him? She would see. It was more daring than became a man to threaten her. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Oh, Mr. Thornton, I am not good enough!' 'Not good enough! Don't mock my own deep feeling of unworthiness. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Take care. -If you do not speak- I shall claim you as my own in some presumptuous way. -Send me away at once, if I must go; -Margaret!- — Elizabeth Gaskell

I am so tired - so tired of being of being whirled on through all these phases of my life, in which nothing abides by me, no creature, no place; it is like the circle in which the victims of earthly passion eddy continually. — Elizabeth Gaskell

The question always is, has everything been done to make the sufferings of these exceptions as small as possible? Or, in the triumph of the crowded procession, have the helpless been trampled on, instead of being gently lifted aside out of the roadway of the conqueror, whom they have no power to accompany on his march? — Elizabeth Gaskell

He shook hands with Margaret. He knew it was the first time their hands had met, though she was perfectly unconscious of the fact. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Every mile was redolent of associations, which she would not have missed for the world, but each of which made her cry upon 'the days that are no more' with ineffable longing. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Margaret the Churchwoman, her father the Dissenter, Higgins the Infidel, knelt down together. It did them no harm. — Elizabeth Gaskell

He could not forget the touch of her arms around his neck, impatiently felt as it had been at the time; but now the recollection of her clinging defence of him, seemed to thrill him through and through,—to melt away every resolution, all power of self-control, as if it were wax before a fire. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I take it that 'gentleman' is a term that only describes a person in his relation to others; but when we speak of him as 'a man,' we consider him not merely with regard to his fellow-men, but in relation to himself,--to life--to time--to eternity. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I do try to say, God’s will be done, sir,” said the Squire, looking up at Mr. Gibson for the first time, and speaking with more life in his voice; “but it’s harder to be resigned than happy people think. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Again, stepping nearer, he besought her with another tremulous eager call upon her name. 'Margaret!' Still lower went the head; more closely hidden was the face, almost resting on the table before her. He came close to her. He knelt by her side, to bring his face to a level with her ear; and whispered-panted out the words: — 'Take care. — If you do not speak — I shall claim you as my own in some strange presumptuous way. — Elizabeth Gaskell

. . . it seemed to me that where others had prayed before to their God, in their joy or in their agony, was of itself a sacred place. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Of all faults the one she most despised in others was the want of bravery; the meanness of heart which leads to untruth. — Elizabeth Gaskell

There was a filmy veil of soft dull mist obscuring, but not hiding, all objects, giving them a lilac hue, for the sun had not yet fully set; a robin was singing ... The leaves were more gorgeous than ever; the first touch of frost would lay them all low to the ground. Already one or two kept constantly floating down, amber and golden in the low slanting sun-rays. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Oh yes!' and suddenly the wintry frost-bound look of care had left Mr. Thornton's face, as if some soft summer gale had blown all anxiety away from his mind; and, though his mouth was as much compressed as before, his eyes smiled out benignly on his questioner. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Oh, I can't describe my home. It is home, and I can't put its charm into words — Elizabeth Gaskell

He came up straight to her father, whose hands he took and wrung without a word - holding them in his for a minute or two, during which time his face, his eyes, his look, told of more sympathy than could be put into words. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Trust a girl of sixteen for knowing well if she is pretty; concerning her plainness she may be ignorant. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Don't think to come over me with th' old tale, that the rich know nothing of the trials of the poor; I say, if they don't know, they ought to know. — Elizabeth Gaskell

God has made us so that we must be mutually dependent. We may ignore our own dependence, or refuse to acknowledge that others depend upon us in more respects than the payment of weekly wages; but the thing must be, nevertheless. Neither you nor any other master can help yourselves. The most proudly independent man depends on those around him for their insensible influence on his character - his life. — Elizabeth Gaskell

The French girls would tell you, to believe that you were pretty would make you so. — Elizabeth Gaskell

It was her brother,' said Mr. Thornton to himself. 'I am glad.I may never see her again; but it is comfort-a relief-to know that much. I knew she could not be unmaidenly; and yet I yearned for conviction. Now I am glad!' It was a little golden thread running through the dark web of his present fortunes; which were growing ever gloomier and more gloomy. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Margaret was not a ready lover, but where she loved she loved passionately, and with no small degree of jealousy. — Elizabeth Gaskell

It seems strange to think, that what gives us most hope for the future should be called Dolores, said Margaret. — Elizabeth Gaskell

She stood by the tea-table in a light-coloured muslin gown, which had a good deal of pink about it. She looked as if she was not attending to the conversation, but solely busy with the tea-cups, among which her round ivory hands moved with pretty, noiseless, daintiness. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I never did write a biography, and I don't exactly know how to set about it; you see I have to be accurate and keep to the facts, a most difficult thing for a writer of fiction. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I do not look on self-indulgent, sensual people as worthy of my hatred; I simply look upon them with contempt for their poorness of character. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Waiting is far more difficult than doing. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Margaret liked this smile; it was the first thing she had admired in this new friend of her father's; and the opposition of character, shown in all these details of appearance she had just been noticing, seemed to explain the attraction they evidently felt towards each other. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Oh, my Margaret--my Margaret! no one can tell what you are to me! Dead--cold as you lie there you are the only woman I ever loved! Oh, Margaret--Margaret! — Elizabeth Gaskell

But the monotonous life led by invalids often makes them like children, inasmuch as thy have neither of them any sense of proportion in events, and seem each to believe that the walls and curtains which shut in their world, and shut out everything else, must of necessity be larger than anything hidden beyond. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I dare not hope. I never was fainthearted before; but I cannot believe such a creature cares for me. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Opportunities are not often wanting where inclination goes before. — Elizabeth Gaskell

If Mr. Thornton was a fool in the morning, as he assured himself at least twenty times he was, he did not grow much wiser in that afternoon. All that he gained in return for his sixpenny omnibus ride, was a more vivid conviction that there never was, never could be, any one like Margaret; that she did not love him and never would; but that she — no! nor the whole world — should never hinder him from loving her. — Elizabeth Gaskell

It had been a royal time of luxury to him, with all its stings and contumelies, compared to the poverty that crept round and clipped the anticipation of the future down to sordid fact, and life without an atmosphere of either hope or fear. — Elizabeth Gaskell

What other people may think of the rightness or wrongness is nothing in comparison to my own deep knowledge, my innate conviction that it was wrong. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Out of the way! We are in the throes of an exceptional emergency! This is no occassion for sport- there is lace at stake!" (Ms. Pole) — Elizabeth Gaskell

But the trees were gorgeous in their autumnal leafiness - the warm odours of flowers and herb came sweet upon the sense. — Elizabeth Gaskell

She lay down and never stirred. To move hand or foot, or even so much as one finger, would have been an exertion beyond the powers of either volition or motion. She was so tired, so stunned, that she thought she never slept at all; her feverish thoughts passed and repassed the boundary between sleeping and waking, and kept their own miserable identity. — Elizabeth Gaskell

A girl in love will do a good deal. — Elizabeth Gaskell

That kind of patriotism which consists in hating all other nations. — Elizabeth Gaskell

But Margaret went less abroad, among machinery and men; saw less of power in its public effect, and, as it happened, she was thrown with one or two of those who, in all measures affecting masses of people, must be acute sufferers for the good of many. The question always is, has everything been done to make the sufferings of these exceptions as small as possible? — Elizabeth Gaskell

Thinking has, many a time, made me sad, darling; but doing never did in all my life....My precept is, do something, my sister, do good if you can; but at any rate, do something. — Elizabeth Gaskell

We do not look for reason for logic in the passionate entreaties of those who are sick unto death; we are stung with the recollection of a thousand slighted opportunities of fulfilling the wishes of those who will soon pass away from among us: and do they ask us for the future happiness of our lives, we lay it at their feet, and will it away from us. — Elizabeth Gaskell

But Margaret was at an age when any apprehension, not absolutely based on a knowledge of facts, is easily banished for a time by a bright sunny day, or some happy outward circumstance. And when the brilliant fourteen fine days of October came on, her cares were all blown away as lightly as thistledown, and she thought of nothing but the glories of the forest. — Elizabeth Gaskell

He almost said to himself that he did not like her, before their conversation ended; he tried so hard to compensate himself for the mortified feeling, that while he looked upon her with an admiration he could not repress, she looked at him with proud indifference, taking him, he thought, for what, in his irritation, he told himself - was a great fellow, with not a grace or a refinement about him. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Come! Poor little heart! Be cheery and brave. We'll be a great deal to one another, if we are thrown off and left desolate. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Mr Thornton would rather have heard that she was suffering the natural sorrow. In the first place, there was selfishness enough in him to have taken pleasure in the idea that his great love might come in to comfort and console her; much the same kind of strange passionate pleasure which comes stinging through a mother's heart, when her drooping infant nestles close to her, and is dependent upon her for everything. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Were all men equal to-night, some would get the start by rising an hour earlier to-morrow. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Your husband this morning! Mine tonight! What do you take him for?' 'A man' smiled Cynthia. 'And therefore, if you won't let me call him changeable, I'll coin a word and call him consolable. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I am the mother that bore you, and your sorrow is my agony; and if you don't hate her, i do' Then, mother, you make me love her more. She is unjustly treated by you, and I must make the balance even. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Only you're right in saying she's too good an opinion of herself to think of you. The saucy jade! I should like to know where she'd find a better! — Elizabeth Gaskell

Mrs Forrester ... sat in state, pretending not to know what cakes were sent up, though she knew, and we knew, and she knew that we knew, and we knew that she knew that we knew, she had been busy all the morning making tea-bread and sponge-cakes. — Elizabeth Gaskell

If you dare to injure her in the least, I will await you where no policeman can step in between. And God shall judge between us two. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Did I ever say an engagement was an elephant, madam? — Elizabeth Gaskell

What could he mean by speaking so, as if I were always thinking that he cared for me, when I know he does not; he cannot. ... But I won't care for him. I surely am mistress enough of myself to control this wild, strange, miserable feeling — Elizabeth Gaskell

Look back. Look back at me." Richard Armitage spoke this line in the movie North and South as he watched Miss Hale drive away in a carriage. — Elizabeth Gaskell

On some such night as this she remembered promising to herself to live as brave and noble a life as any heroine she ever read or heard of in romance, a life sans peur et sans reproche; it had seemed to her then that she had only to will, and such a life would be accomplished. And now she had learnt that not only to will, but also to pray, was a necessary condition in the truly heroic. Trusting to herself, she had fallen. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Margaret had always dreaded lest her courage should fail her in any emergency, and she should be proved to be, what she dreaded lest she was--a coward. But now, in this real great time of reasonable fear and nearness of terror, she forgot herself, and felt only an intense sympathy--intense to painfulness--in the interests of the moment. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Similarity of opinion is not always—I think not often—needed for fullness and perfection of love. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Yet it was very difficult to separate her interpretation, and keep it distinct from his meaning. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Madam your wife and I didn't hit it off the only time I ever saw her. I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it wasn't me. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I wanted to see the place where Margaret grew to what she is, even at the worst time of all, when I had no hope of ever calling her mine. — Elizabeth Gaskell

For all his pain, he longed to see the author of it. Although he hated Margaret at times, when he thought of that gentle familiar attitude and all the attendant circumstances, he had a restless desire to renew her picture in his mind - a longing for the very atmosphere she breathed. He was in the Charybdis of passion, and must perforce circle and circle ever nearer round the fatal centre. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Oh dear! A drunken infidel weaver! said Mr. Hale to himself. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Margaret found that the indifferent, careless conversations of one who, however kind, was not too warm and anxious a sympathizer, did her good. — Elizabeth Gaskell

It is odd enough to see how the entrance of a person of the opposite sex into an assemblage of either men or women calms down the little discordances and the disturbance of mood. — Elizabeth Gaskell

As she realized what might have been, she grew to be thankful for what was. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Don’t be afraid,” she said, coldly, “ as far as love may go she may be worthy of you. It must have taken a good deal to overcome her pride. Don’t be afraid, John. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I have passed out of childhood into old age. I have had no youth - no womanhood; the hopes of womanhood have closed for me - for I shall never marry; and I anticipate cares and sorrows just as if I were an old woman, and with the same fearful spirit. — Elizabeth Gaskell

No one loves me, - no one cares for me, but you, mother. — Elizabeth Gaskell

In all disappointments sympathy is a great balm. — Elizabeth Gaskell

His laws once broken, His justice and the very nature of those laws bring the immutable retribution; but if we turn penitently to Him, He enables us to bear our punishment with a meek and docile heart, ‘for His mercy endureth forever. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Even before he left the room, — and certainly, not five minutes after, the clear conviction dawned upon her, shined bright upon her, that he did love her; that he had loved her; that he would love her. And she shrank and shuddered as under the fascination of some great power. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Mr. Thorton love Margaret! Why, Margraret would never think of him, I'm sure! Such a thing has never entered her head." "Entering her heart would do. — Elizabeth Gaskell

But with the increase of serious and just ground of complaint, a new kind of patience had sprung up in her Mother's mind. She was gentle and quiet in intense bodily suffering, almost in proportion as she had been restless and depressed when there had been no real cause for grief. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I say Gibson, we're old friends, and you're a fool if you take anything I say as an offense. Madam your wife and I didn't hit it off the only time I ever saw her. I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it wasn't me! — Elizabeth Gaskell

Mr. Thornton felt that in this influx no one was speaking to Margaret, and was restless under this apparent neglect. But he never went near her himself; he did not look at her. Only, he knew what she was doing — or not doing — better than anyone else in the room. Margaret was so unconscious of herself, and so much amused by watching other people, that she never thought whether she was left unnoticed or not. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Well, He had known what love was-a sharp pang, a fierce experience, in the midst of whose flames he was struggling! but, through that furnace he would fight his way out into the serenity of middle age,-all the richer and more human for having known this great passion. — Elizabeth Gaskell

If they came sorrowing, and wanting sympathy in a complicated trouble like the present, then they would be felt as a shadow in all these houses of intimate acquaintances, not friends — Elizabeth Gaskell

I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it wasn't me. — Elizabeth Gaskell

She had a bracelet on one taper arm, which would fall down over her round wrist. Mr. Thornton watched the replacing of this troublesome ornament with far more attention than he listened to her father. It seemed as if it fascinated him to see her push it up impatiently, until it tightened her soft flesh; and then to mark the loosening—the fall. He could almost have exclaimed—'There it goes, again! — Elizabeth Gaskell

Wearily she went to bed, wearily she arose in four or five hours' time. But with the morning came hope, and a brighter view of things. — Elizabeth Gaskell

I daresay it seems foolish; perhaps all our earthly trials will appear foolish to us after a while; perhaps they seem so now to angels. But we are ourselves, you know, and this is now, not some time to come, a long, long way off. And we are not angels, to be comforted by seeing the ends for which everything is sent. — Elizabeth Gaskell

Life Lessons by Elizabeth Gaskell

1. Elizabeth Gaskell teaches us to be resilient in the face of adversity, to never give up on our dreams, and to strive for justice and equality.
2. She also encourages us to be compassionate and understanding of others, to be open-minded and to always seek out knowledge and understanding.
3. Lastly, she reminds us to be true to ourselves and to never forget our roots, no matter how far we may travel.