George Meredith Quotes
1828 - 1909
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Cynicism is intellectual dandyism.
George Meredith— 1879 The Egoist, ch.7.
Don't count your years, make your years count.
George Meredith
He fainted on his vengefulness, and strove To ape the magnanimity of love.
George Meredith— 1862 Modern Love, 2.
A dainty rogue in porcelain.
George Meredith— The Egoist, chapter 5 (1879)
'But do care a bit for flattery, my lady,'said De Craye.''Tis the finest of the Arts; we might call it moral sculpture. Adepts in it can cut their friends to any shape they like.'
George Meredith— 1879 De Craye to Lady Busshe. The Egoist, ch.36.
Kissing don't last: cookery do!
George Meredith— 1859 The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, ch.28.
Speech is the small change of silence.
George Meredith— 1859 The Ordeal of Richard Feverel, ch.34.
It became known that death had taken Mr Melchisedec Harrington, and struck one off the list of living tailors.
George Meredith— 1860 Evan Harrington, ch.1.
For singing till his heaven fills 'Tis love of earth that he instils, And ever winging up and up, Our valley is his golden cup, And he the wine which overflows.
George Meredith— 1883 Poems and Lyrics of the Joy of Earth,'The Lark Ascending'.
'Tis Ireland gives England her soldiers, her generals too.
George Meredith— 1885 Diana of the Crossways, ch.2.
Affairs of the world he could treat competently; he had a head for high politics and the management of men; the femininehalfoftheworldwasa confusionandavexation to his intelligence, characterless; and one woman at last appearing decipherable, he fancied it must be owing to her possession of character, a thing prized the more in women because of his latent doubt of its existence.
George Meredith— 1885 Percy Dacier's opinion of Diana. Diana of the Crossways, ch.28.
A wind sways in the pines, And below Not a breath of wild air; Still as the mosses that glow On the flooring and over the lines Of the roots here and there. The pine tree drops its dead; Theyare quiet, as under the sea. Overhead, overhead Rushes life in a race, As the clouds the clouds chase; And we go, And we drop like the fruits of the tree, Even we, Even so.
George Meredith— A Reading of Earth, "Dirge in the Woods" (1888)
For singing till his heaven fills, 'Tis love of earth that he instils, And ever winging up and up, Our valley is his golden cup, And he the wine which overflows To lift us with him as he goes.
George Meredith— The Lark Ascending, l. 65-70 (1881).
The song seraphically free Of taint of personality, So pure that it salutes the suns The voice of one for millions, In whom the millions rejoice For giving their one spirit voice.
George Meredith— The Lark Ascending, l. 95-100.
But O the truth, the truth! the many eyes That look on it! the diverse things they see!
George Meredith— A Ballad of Fair Ladies in Revolt st. 16 (1883).
On a starred night Prince Lucifer uprose. Tired of his dark dominion swung the fiend.
George Meredith— Lucifer in Starlight, l. 1-2 (1883).
Around the ancient track marched, rank on rank, The army of unalterable law.
George Meredith— Lucifer in Starlight, l. 13-14.
All wisdom's armoury this man could wield
George Meredith— The Sage Enamoured (1892).
Cannon his name, Cannon his voice, he came.
George Meredith— Napoléon, I (1898).
I expect that Woman will be the last thing civilized by Man.
George Meredith— Ch. 1. (The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859))
Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered.
George Meredith— Ch. 12. (The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859))
The actors are, it seems, the usual three: Husband and wife and lover.
George Meredith— St. 25. (Modern Love (1862))
How many a thing which we cast to the ground, When others pick it up, becomes a gem!
George Meredith— St. 41Compare: "Once in a golden hour / I cast to earth a seed. Up there came a flower, The people said, a weed", Alfred Tennyson, The Flower.
In tragic life, God wot, No villain need be! Passions spin the plot: We are betrayed by what is false within.
George Meredith— Modern Love, St. 43 (1862)
More brain, O Lord, more brain! or we shall mar Utterly this fair garden we might win.
George Meredith— St. 48. (Modern Love (1862))
The well of true wit is truth itself.
George Meredith— Ch. 1. (Diana of the Crossways (1885))
Ireland gives England her soldiers, her generals too.
George Meredith— Ch. 2. (Diana of the Crossways (1885))
"How divine is utterance!" she said. "As we to the brutes, poets are to us."
George Meredith— Ch. 16. (Diana of the Crossways (1885))
There is nothing the body suffers that the soul may not profit by.
George Meredith— Ch. 18. (Diana of the Crossways (1885))
