Quotes From "Shirley" By Unknown

1
God surely did not create us, and cause us to live, with the sole end of wishing always to die. I believe, in my heart, we were intended to prize life and enjoy it, so long as we retain it. Existence never was originally meant to be that useless, blank, pale, slow-trailing thing it often becomes to many, and is becoming to me, among the rest. Unknown
2
Milton's Eve! Milton's Eve! .. Milton tried to see the first woman; but Cary, he saw her not .. I would beg to remind him that the first men of the earth were Titans, and that Eve was their mother: from her sprang Saturn, Hyperion, Oceanus; she bore Prometheus" --"Pagan that you are! what does that signify?"" I say, there were giants on the earth in those days: giants that strove to scale heaven. The first woman's breast that heaved with life on this world yielded the daring which could contend with Omnipotence: the stregth which could bear a thousand years of bondage, -- the vitality which could feed that vulture death through uncounted ages, -- the unexhausted life and uncorrupted excellence, sisters to immortality, which after millenniums of crimes, struggles, and woes, could conceive and bring forth a Messiah. The first woman was heaven-born: vast was the heart whence gushed the well-spring of the blood of nations; and grand the undegenerate head where rested the consort-crown of creation..I saw -- I now see -- a woman- Titan: her robe of blue air spreads to the outskirts of the heath, where yonder flock is grazing; a veil white as an avalanche sweeps from hear head to her feet, and arabesques of lighting flame on its borders. Under her breast I see her zone, purple like that horizon: through its blush shines the star of evening. Her steady eyes I cannot picture; they are clear -- they are deep as lakes -- they are lifted and full of worship -- they tremble with the softness of love and the lustre of prayer. Her forehead has the expanse of a cloud, and is paler than the early moon, risen long before dark gathers: she reclines her bosom on the ridge of Stilbro' Moor; her mighty hands are joined beneath it. So kneeling, face to face she speaks with God. That Eve is Jehova's daughter, as Adam was His son. . Unknown
3
If men could see us as we really are, they would be a little amazed; but the cleverest, the acutest men are often under an illusion about women: they do not read them in a true light: they misapprehend them, both for good and evil: their good woman is a queer thing, half doll, half angel; their bad woman almost always a fiend. Unknown
4
There are certain phrases potent to make my blood boil -- improper influence! What old woman's cackle is that?"" Are you a young lady?"" I am a thousand times better: I am an honest woman, and as such I will be treated. Unknown
5
At heart, he could not abide sense in women: he liked to see them as silly, as light-headed, as vain, as open to ridicule as possible; because they were then in reality what he held them to be, and wished them to be, --inferior: toys to play with, to amuse a vacant hour and to be thrown away. Unknown
6
No: I shall not marry Samuel Fawthrop Wynne.""I ask why? I must have a reason. In all respects he is more than worthy of you." She stood on the hearth; she was pale as the white marble slab and cornice behind her; her eyes flashed large, dilated, unsm Unknown
7
I'll borrow of imagination what reality will not give me. Unknown
8
Our power of being happy lies a good deal in ourselves, I believe. Unknown
9
Every joy that life gives must be earned ere it be secured; and how hardly earned, those only know who have wrestled for great prizes. The heart’s blood must gem with red beads the brow of the combatant, before the wreath of victory rustles over it. Unknown
10
Her book has perhaps been a good one; it has refreshed, refilled, rewarmed her heart; it has set her brain astir, furnished her mind with pictures. Unknown
11
Strange that grief should now almost choke me, because another human being's eye has failed to greet mine. Unknown
12
Having a large world of his own in his own head and heart, he tolerated confinement to a small, still corner of the real world very patiently. Unknown
13
.. . they would neither hate nor envy us if they did not deem us so much happier than themselves. Unknown
14
Gratitude is a divine emotion. It fills the heart, not to bursting; it warms it, but not to fever. I like to taste leisurely of bliss. Devoured in haste, I do not know its flavor. Unknown
15
. at eighteen the true narrative of life is yet to becommenced. Before that time we sit listening to a tale, a marvelous fiction, delightful sometimes, and sad sometimes, almost always unreal. Before that time our world is heroic, its inhabitants half-divine or semi-demon; its scenes are dreamscenes; darker woods and stranger hills, brighter skies, more dangerous waters, sweeter flowers, more tempting fruits, wider plains, drearier deserts, sunnier fields than are found in nature, overspread our enchanted globe. What a moon we gaze on before that time! How the trembling of our hearts at her aspect bearswitness to its unutterable beauty! . Unknown
16
In her past were sweet passages, in her future rosy hopes. Unknown
17
He did not yet known how many commenced lefe-romances are doomed never to get beyond the first, or at most the second chapter. Unknown
18
Existence was never originally meant to be that useless, blank, pale, slow-trailing thing it often becomes to many, and is becoming to me among the rest. Unknown
19
I will bestir myself, ' was her resolution, 'and try to be wise if I cannot be good. Unknown
20
Endurance over-goaded, stretched the hand of fraternity to sedition. Unknown
21
His mind has the clearness of the deep sea, the patience of its rocks, the force of its billows. Unknown
22
.. . nobody in particular is to blame, that I can see, for the state in which things are .. . Unknown