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Elizabeth Gaskell Quotes

Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell , often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, was an English novelist, biographer and short story writer. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of Victorian society, including the very poor, and are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature. Her first novel, Mary Barton, was published in 1848. Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Brontë, published in 1857, was the first biography of Brontë. In this biography, she wrote only of the moral, sophisticated things in Brontë’s life; the rest she left out, deciding that certain, more salacious aspects were better kept hidden. Among Gaskell's best known novels are Cranford , North and South , and Wives and Daughters , each having been adapted for television by the BBC. Wikipedia  

✵ 29. September 1810 – 12. November 1865
Elizabeth Gaskell photo

Works

Wives and Daughters
Wives and Daughters
Elizabeth Gaskell
Cranford
Cranford
Elizabeth Gaskell
Mary Barton
Mary Barton
Elizabeth Gaskell
Wives and Daughters
Wives and Daughters
Elizabeth Gaskell
Cranford
Cranford
Elizabeth Gaskell
Mary Barton
Mary Barton
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell: 12 quotes1 like

Famous Elizabeth Gaskell Quotes

“Thinking more of others’ happiness than of her own was very fine; but did it not mean giving up her very individuality, quenching all the warm love, the true desires, that made her herself? Yet in this deadness lay her only comfort; so it seemed.”

Elizabeth Gaskell book Wives and Daughters

Wives and Daughters, ch. 11
Wives and Daughters

“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 book Wives and Daughters

Wives and Daughters, ch. 11
Wives and Daughters

“Economy was always "elegant", and money-spending always "vulgar and ostentatious"; a sort of sour-grapeism, which made us very peaceful and satisfied.”

Elizabeth Gaskell book Cranford

Source: Cranford (1851–3), Ch. 1

“I'll not listen to reason…Reason always means what someone else has got to say.”

Elizabeth Gaskell book Cranford

Source: Cranford (1851–3), Ch. 14

“It was his general plan to repress emotion by not showing the sympathy he felt.”

Elizabeth Gaskell book Wives and Daughters

Wives and Daughters, ch. 11
Wives and Daughters

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

Elizabeth Gaskell book Mary Barton

Mary Barton, ch. 37.

Elizabeth Gaskell Quotes

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

Elizabeth Gaskell book Mary Barton

Mary Barton, ch. 3 (1848)

“A wise parent humours the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and adviser when his absolute rule shall cease.”

Elizabeth Gaskell

North and South, ch. 15 (1854-5)

“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 book Wives and Daughters

Wives and Daughters, ch. 11
Wives and Daughters

“A little credulity helps one on through life very smoothly.”

Elizabeth Gaskell book Cranford

Source: Cranford (1851–3), Ch. 11

“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 book Wives and Daughters

Wives and Daughters, ch. 50 (1864-5)
Wives and Daughters

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