Quotes from book
The Duke's Children

Name: The Duke's Children
Author: Anthony Trollope

The Duke's Children is a novel by Anthony Trollope, first published in 1879 as a serial in All the Year Round. It is the sixth and final novel of the Palliser series.

“Speeches easy to young speakers are generally very difficult to old listeners.”

Anthony Trollope book The Duke's Children

Source: The Duke's Children (1879), Ch. 56

“When any body of statesmen make public asservations by one or various voices, that there is no discord among them, not a dissentient voice on any subject, people are apt to suppose that they cannot hang together much longer.”

Anthony Trollope book The Duke's Children

Source: The Duke's Children (1879), Ch. 71

“Sir Timothy was a fluent speaker, and when there was nothing to be said was possessed of a great plenty of words. And he was gifted with that peculiar power which enables a man to have the last word in every encounter, — a power which we are apt to call repartee, which is in truth the readiness which comes from continual practice. You shall meet two men of whom you shall know the one to be endowed with the brilliancy of true genius, and the other to be possessed of but moderate parts, and shall find the former never able to hold his own against the latter. In a debate, the man of moderate parts will seem to be greater than the man of genius. But this skill of tongue, this glibness of speech is hardly an affair of intellect at all. It is, — as is style to the writer, — not the wares which he has to take to market, but the vehicle in which they may be carried. Of what avail to you is it to have filled granaries with corn if you cannot get your corn to the consumer? Now Sir Timothy was a great vehicle, but he had not in truth much corn to send.”

Anthony Trollope book The Duke's Children

Source: The Duke's Children (1879), Ch. 26

“No one can depute authority. It comes too much from personal accidents, and too little from reason or law to be handed over to others.”

Anthony Trollope book The Duke's Children

Source: The Duke's Children (1879), Ch. 66

“"I think it is so glorious," said the American. "There is no such mischievous nonsense in all the world as equality. That is what father says. What men ought to want is liberty."”

Anthony Trollope book The Duke's Children

Source: The Duke's Children (1879), Ch. 48

“There is no such mischievous nonsense in all the world as equality.”

Anthony Trollope book The Duke's Children

Source: The Duke's Children (1879), Ch. 48
Context: "I think it is so glorious," said the American. "There is no such mischievous nonsense in all the world as equality. That is what father says. What men ought to want is liberty."

“Speak to me of honour, of duty, and of nobility; and tell me what they require of you.”

Anthony Trollope book The Duke's Children

Source: The Duke's Children (1879), Ch. 61
Context: But between you and me there should be no mention of law as the guide of conduct. Speak to me of honour, of duty, and of nobility; and tell me what they require of you.

“From all evil against which the law bars you, you should be barred, at an infinite distance, by honour, by conscience, and nobility. Does the law require patriotism, philanthropy, self-abnegation, public service, purity of purpose, devotion to the needs of others who have been placed in the world below you? 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, of duty, and of nobility; and tell me what they require of you.”

Anthony Trollope book The Duke's Children

Source: The Duke's Children (1879), Ch. 61