Anthony Trollope Quotes - Page 5

Does not all the world know that when in autumn the Bismarcks of the world, or they who are bigger than Bismarcks, meet at this or that delicious haunt of salubrity, the affairs of the world are then settled in little conclaves, with grater ease, rapidity, and certainty than in large parliaments or the dull chambers of public offices?

A Minister can always give a reason; and, if he be clever, he can generally when doing so punish the man who asks for it. The punishing of an influential enemy is an indiscretion; but an obscure questioner may often be crushed with good effect.

Caveat emptor is the only motto going, and the worst proverb that ever came from the dishonest stony-hearted Rome.

Wine is valued for its price, not its flavor.

I have no ambition to surprise my reader. Castles with unknown passages are not compatible with my homely muse.

I am not fit to marry. I am often cross, and I like my own way, and I have a distaste for men.

Audacity in wooing is a great virtue, but a man must measure even his virtues.

My sweetheart is to me more than a coined hemisphere.

A man's love, till it has been chastened and fastened by the feeling of duty which marriage brings with it, is instigated mainly by the difficulty of pursuit.

Romance is very pretty in novels, but the romance of a life is always a melancholy matter. They are most happy who have no story to tell.

The circumstances seemed to be simple; but they who understood such matters declared that the duration of a trial depended a great deal more on the public interest felt in the matter than upon its own nature.

Such young men are often awkward, ungainly, and not yet formed in their gait; they straggle with their limbs, and are shy; words do not come to them with ease, when words are required, among any but their accustomed associates. Social meetings are periods of penance to them, and any appearance in public will unnerve them. They go much about alone, and blush when women speak to them. In truth, they are not as yet men, whatever the number may be of their years; and, as they are no longer boys, the world has found for them the ungraceful name of hobbledehoy.

Things to be done offer themselves, I suppose, because they are in themselves desirable; not because it is desirable to have something to do.

There is nothing perhaps so generally consoling to a man as a well-established grievance; a feeling of having been injured, on which his mind can brood from hour to hour, allowing him to plead his own cause in his own court, within his own heart, and always to plead it successfully.

An enemy might at any time become a friend, but while an enemy was an enemy he should be trodden on and persecuted.

Money is neither god nor devil, that it should make one noble and another vile. It is an accident, and if honestly possessed, may pass from you to me, or from me to you, without a stain.

A bull in a china shop is not a useful animal, nor is he ornamental, but there can be no doubt of his energy. The hare was full of energy, but he didn't win the race. The man who stands still is the man who keeps his ground.

I believe journalism is coming to be regarded as quite a respectable occupation for gentlemen nowadays.

And though it is much to be a nobleman, it is more to be a gentleman.

When the ivy has found its tower, when the delicate creeper has found its strong wall, we know how the parasite plants grow and prosper.

The law is a great thing,--because men are poor and weak, and bad. And it is great, because where it exists in its strength, no tyrant can be above it. But between you and me there should be no mention of law as the guide of conduct. Speak to me of honour, and of duty, and of nobility; and tell me what they require of you.

Power is so pleasant that men quickly learn to be greedy in the enjoyment of it, and to flatter themselves that patriotism requires them to be imperious.

There are some achievements which are never done in the presence of those who hear of them. Catching salmon is one, and working all night is another.

I have sometimes thought that there is no being so venomous, so bloodthirsty as a professed philanthropist.

He was one of those men who, as in youth they are never very young, so in age are they never very old.