The temptation is too strong for me. Oh, Lord! where is Thy peace that I believed in, in my childhood? — that I hear people speaking of now, as if it hushed up the troubles of life, and had not to be sought for — sought for, as with tears of blood! [-Jemima, chapter 26, pg. 275] Elizabeth Gaskell
About This Quote

This quote is one of the strongest quotes by Jane Austen. The temptation is too strong for me. Oh, Lord! where is Thy peace that I believed in, in my childhood? – that I hear people speaking of now, as if it hushed up the troubles of life, and had not to be sought for – sought for, as with tears of blood! Jemima has gone through a lot and even at her young age, she has learned that life is not all roses and unicorns. She says that she hears people talking about peace as if it were something that you could buy in a store.

While Jemima does refer to peace as a “thing” that you can buy, she used the word “peace” as a metaphor for the calm and tranquility we feel when we finally accept our fate and accept our situation. Jane Austen uses the word “peace” to describe this feeling because peace is not something we can buy. Instead, peace comes from acceptance and acceptance comes from accepting that life will be hard at times and sometimes we will fail.

Source: Ruth

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. - Unknown
  2. Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grassthe world is too full to talk about. - Jalaluddin Rumi
  3. When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. - Jimi Hendrix
  4. When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for those things without... - Fred Rogers
  5. If someone thinks that peace and love are just a cliche that must have been left behind in the 60s, that's a problem. Peace and love are eternal. - John Lennon
More Quotes By Elizabeth Gaskell
  1. One word more. You look as if you thought it tainted you to beloved by me. You cannot avoid it. Nay, I, if I would, cannotcleanse you from it. But I would not, if I could. I have neverloved any woman before: my life has...
  2. 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.
  3. Take care. If you do not speak — I shall claim you as my own in some strange presumptuous way. Send me away at once, if I must go; — Margaret! —
  4. Loyalty and obedience to wisdom and justice are fine; but it is still finer to defy arbitrary power, unjustly and cruelly used--not on behalf of ourselves, but on behalf of others more helpless.
  5. I'll not listen to reason... reason always means what someone else has got to say.
Related Topics