John Galsworthy Quotes
“...the God of Property, whose altar is inscribed with those inspiring words: ‘Nothing for nothing, and really remarkably little for sixpence.’” - John Galsworthy, The Man of Property
“...they did not like telling lies, having an impression that only Frenchmen and Russians told them...” – John Galsworthy, The Man of Property
“There are things, he feels—there are things here which—well, which are things.” – John Galsworthy, The Man of Property
“For he himself had experienced to the full the gnawing fear at the bottom of each woman’s heart that she is a drag on the man she loves.” – John Galsworthy, The Man of Property
“The man of the world awoke with a sense of being lost to that world, and a dim recollection of having been called a ‘limit.’” – John Galsworthy, In Chancery
“If she could only have believed that she made him happy, how much happier would the twenty years of their companionship have been!” – John Galsworthy, In Chancery
“And yet still seeing her with the sunlight on the clinging China crêpe of her gown, he uttered a little groan, so that a tourist who was passing, thought: ‘Man in pain! Let’s see! what did I have for lunch?’” – John Galsworthy, In Chancery
“Because of the sound of the word he was passionately addicted to the Austrians, and finding there were so few battles in which they were successful he had to invent them in his games.” – John Galsworthy, Awakening
“...standing on one leg beside the bath, like Slingsby, [he] had whispered—“Ho, ho, ho! Dog my cats!” mysteriously, to bring luck.” – John Galsworthy, Awakening
“Decidedly no man ought to have to die while his heart was still young enough to love beauty!” – John Galsworthy, To Let
“...just before he fell asleep he had been thinking: ‘As a people shall we ever really like the French? Will they ever really like us!’” – John Galsworthy, To Let
“His heart thumped and pained him. Life—its loves—its work—its beauty—its aching, and—its end! A good time; a fine time in spite of all; until—you regretted that you had ever been born. Life—it wore you down, yet did not make you want to die—that was the cunning evil! Mistake to have a heart!” – John Galsworthy, To Let
“...his eyes gave her a funny feeling of having no particular clothes.” – John Galsworthy, To Let
"He might wish and wish and never get it—the beauty and the loving in the world!" – John Galsworthy, To Let
“The impossibility of getting anything serious from this young man afflicted Soames like the eating of heavy pudding.” – John Galsworthy, The White Monkey
“’It’s pretty hard sometimes to remember that it’s all comedy; but one gets there, you know.’” – John Galsworthy, Swan Song
“Something strong in Michael, so strong that he hadn’t known of its existence, had rallied to his aid.” – John Galsworthy, Swan Song
“She had married him for one or other of the unnumbered reasons for which women marry men, any one of which is good enough till after the event.” – John Galsworthy, Jocelyn
“That is a very difficult question, but I think it is like this, don’t you know. One to another of us, has free will; that is, you know, in our social relations. Looked at from the – er – the narrow point of view, there is of course free will, yes – free will, and we make use of it, as we are weak or strong. But...there is quite another point of view, don’t you see, equally true; of course, we are all at the ends of long chains of – er – circumstance. Whatever we do, you know, is only what comes out of that – it is all settled before, so that, of course, in that sense there us no free will. For instance, my dear young lady, if you choose to do something unexpected, it is really the expected thing you are doing all the time, because the chains of your circumstance and your temperament would not permit you to do otherwise. ... What we call morality – I believe in it...Certainly. Why? Because there it is, don’t you know? One can see it, it is quite thick, one can cut it with a knife. Every peoples has its own, and every peoples disobeys it more or less...Ah! it is a little thing, our morality; but there is a big morality, yes, yes, a big morality, over there, don’t you know....Over there!...Everywhere! Yes, yes. Nature is very moral. Ah! she is big, but she is moral. She has to be, you know. Look at that grass, my dear young lady...she can’t play freaks, she has got her place, you know. It is wonderful to think, isn’t it, if that little blade of grass vanished quite away, all the world would come undone. Ah! I think that is wonderful, that is morality.” – John Galsworthy, Jocelyn
“That she was one of those women—not too common in the Anglo–Saxon race—born to be loved and to love, who when not loving are not living, had certainly never even occurred to him.” – John Galsworthy, The Man of Property