Tess of the d'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

But some might say, where was Tess's guardian Angel? Where was the providence of her simple faith? Perhaps... he was talking, or he was pursuing, or he was in a journey, or he was sleeping and not to be awaked... As Tess's own people down in those retreats are never tired of saying among each other in their fatalistic way: 'It was to be.'

He did not mention it because he was afraid of endangering his chance of her - the great prize of his life.

O, you have torn my life all to pieces, made me be what I prayed you in pity not to make me be again!

How can I pray for you, when I am forbidden to believe that the great Power who moves the world would alter his plans on my account?

My life looks as if it had been wasted for want of chances!

You are very good. But it strikes me that there is a want of harmony between your present mood of self-sacrifice and your past mood of self-preservation.

She would have laid down her life for thee.

You, and those like you, take your fill of pleasure on earth by making the life of such as me bitter and black with sorrow; and then it is a fine thing, when you have had enough of that, to think of securing your pleasure in heaven by becoming converted!

Rays from the sunrise drew forth the buds and stretched them into long stalks, lifted up sap in noiseless streams, opened petals, and sucked out scents in invisible jets and breathings.

O why have you treated me so monstrously, Angel ! I do not deserve it. I have thought it all over carefully, and I can never, never forgive you! You know that I did not intend to wrong you - why have you so wronged me? You are cruel, cruel indeed! I will try to forget you. It is all injustice I have received at your hands!

The two speechless gazers bent themselves down to the earth, as if in prayer, and remained there a long time, absolutely motionless: the flag continued to wave silently. As soon as they had strength they arose, joined hands again, and went on.

Too late, too late.

'THY, DAMNATION, SLUMBERETH, NOT.'

And the d'Urberville knights and dames slept on in their tombs unknowing.

Andrew Quotes

S: Are you following me?
A: I'll follow you anywhere.

"And you know how..."

S: You're about to push me over the edge.
A: It's okay, you have wings.

S: Don't ever leave me.
A: You can't get rid of me, sunshine. You've tried.

"When I first herd the idea I thought it udderly ridiculous, but the moo I thought about it, the the moo I decided to say hay! Let's milk it for all it's worth."

S: Everyone has their own trip.
A: That doesn't mean you have to go along for the ride.

"Sunshine..."

"I love your Dad."

"You were right. We would've died if I'd driven up to the Gap."

"I held it - we didn't die."

"You have to account for the ignorance of people."

"Brian, when I own my island..."

"Please continue what you were saying before your better sense so rudely interrupted."

"Some people don't like how modern technology allows you to be contacted at all times. So, they don't have a cell phone. Us, we don't have a doorbell."

S: You're driving me crazy.
A: Crazy like a wombat.
S: Who are you calling a wombat?
A: Oh, I think we both know who's the wombat in this house.

A: I bet a wombat could kick a squirrel's ass.
S: I bet no one in the history of man has said that sentence.
A: That's why I'm a literary genius.

S: I don't know how you save a girl like me.
A: I'm working on it.

S: They're driving me to drink.
A: I know sunshine, and they don't even have their licenses yet.

"Did you know that butterflies have dust on their wings?"

"Soon, you're going to have to admit you're running out of ammunition, sunshine."

"When I was young, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Since then, they have proved me wrong."

"Goddamn aphids."

"Let me tell you something, any creature that's an enemy of my wife's rose bushes is an enemy of mine."

"To get a man to admit he's wrong, you have to convince him he has had a better idea."

S: Nothing I give is ever enough.
A: That's because I love everything about you so much. I could never get enough.

"When men act that way with you, it's more of a reflection on them than it is on you."

"It does no good to second guess a Suzie. You can only chase a Suzie."

"Some people call it chaos, some people call it pandemonium, I call it the nursery."

"That's it, that's the park!"

A: We're soulmates.
S: Yeah, but do you...
A: Two halves of the same walnut.

S: I wanna drive you crazy. Will you forgive me that?
A: I always forgive you, sunshine.
S: Have I that many sins?
A: It's your virtues that drive me crazy.

"I wish I knew more about small furry animals. Like I wish I knew if it was a badger, a groundhog, or a rabbit. Well, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a rabbit."

"If your goal is something you can win, you have the wrong goal."

S: What is ___'s purpose? He must have a purpose.
A: There is a purpose for every tool.

S: I'm lost.
A: Then I'm lost, too, until they find us.

A: The monkeys in my heart are rattling their cage.

A: Let the riff-raff sort themselves out, the bodies will be gone by morning.

S: Why does my head still hurt?
A: I've only been making singles.
S: Ah, so the pain is still coming through.


His Writings, Letters, Poems:

Whatever prices we pay: must they not be worth it? Is there anything too steep for this?

How many memories, now that you've fought and struggled to gain them, would you trade away?

I would not trade one of my barbs for someone else's rainbow.

Words, oh, words were never enough....

I cannot imagine raising a child with anyone else.

Have I told you how much I love my wedding ring? It's like in Genesis when suddenly the realization of nakedness came, all this time my finger has been bare, and now it knows what it means to be covered.

Each step falls with a muted grind, a steady metronome counting in an orchestra that will never play.

You can make anyone realize how foolish they were thinking poorly of something or someone, and make them delight in that which they once were saddened by.

This is who man imagined when he wrote of the water nymph.

Even the meekest soul can only hold a coward's pose for so long.

I walk forward upon the gritty earth. I leave no footprints. But there is nothing that has been left anywhere here. There is only now.

If nothing else I have something to walk towards. Something to ensure I am walking continually in the same direction, instead of wandering in circles.

I love the beauty you find. That's something I've always been in awe of you, is your eye for beauty. You find it everywhere. Sometimes when you point it out I feel like I've had my eyes always closed, like everyone has their eyes closed, and Suzy is going round opening our eyes one by one... first the left and then the right, and showing us how beautiful the world is....

Regardless of whether I knew so or not, this is what I have been searching for. That may be the definition of fate.

I don't like him standing there. Though I've no reason to believe he means me harm, this strange journey has imparted a need to be able to access doorways which I may retain for the rest of my life.

For a moment I fear my resolve will be stolen as well, but it remains.

My next step finds nothing, and I falter back to the security of the ledge. A silent prayer passes through my lips, my eyes close, and I push forward into the water, diving head first towards the center. Towards the bottom.

Suddenly I understand. She had said, "A cranberry and vodka is all it takes to get rid of my problems. Only thing is, in the morning I wake up with brand new ones."

It's funny the people that get to see God. Some people can spend their whole lives in deep meditation for that one instant when bam! They've hit a transcendental peak. Others are just going about their daily life, when some jerk runs a red light. Bam! Next thing they know they're headed towards the bright lights. Whether it's trauma or drugs or deep prayer, only a handful will ever make it.

This book to save the world, I've written to save myself.

Tori Amos Lyrics

What's it gonna take?
Til my baby's alright?
What's it gonna take?

Those angels can't ever take my place.

Will we pay for who we've been?

This is not really happening--
You bet your life it is.

But, what if I'm a mermaid in these jeans of his with her name still on it?

All the way to New York--
I can feel the distance getting close.

You always felt like suede.

Show me the ways to get back to the garden.

I loved his secret places,
but I can't go anymore.

Why am I here if love isn't forever?

We'll see how brave you are.
we'll see how fast you'll be running.
we'll see how brave you are.

Get out of my garden.

But, I believe in peace
I believe in peace, bitch.

I'm aware what the rules are, but you know that I will run.

I knew then it would be a lifelong sort of thing.

So, you found a girl
who thinks really deep thoughts.
What's so amazing about really deep thoughts?

Maybe a bright sandy beach is gonna bring you back.

And I rode along side you until you lost me there in the open road.

Rabbit-- where'd you put the keys, girl?

Yes, my loyalties turned
like my ankle
in the seventh grade
running after Billy,
running after the rain.

He moved like the sunset.
God, who painted that?

Breadcrumbs lost under the snow.

There's nothing we cannot ever fix, I said.

Can't forget the things you never said.

You sign Prince of Darkness,
try Squire of Dimness.

I don't need much to keep me warm.

Brothers and lovers she and I were,
Now she seems to be sand under his shoes.

She said she knew what my books did not.

I almost ran over an angel.
He had a nice big fat cigar.
"In a sense," he said, "You're alone here.
So, if you jump, you best jump far."

Maybe she's just pieces of me you've never seen.

I'm much stronger than you know.
Sometimes,
I'm not afraid to let it show.

But, I only can see myself
skating around the truth who I am.
But I know, Dad, the ice is getting thin.

You say you packed my things,
And divided what was mine,
you're off to the mountain top.
I say her skinny legs could use sun.

Rest your shoulders, Peaches and Cream.
Everywhere a Judas as far as you can see.

Tell me you're crazy.
Maybe then I'll understand.

We scream in catherdrals:
Why can't it be beautiful?
Why does there gotta be a sacrifice?

In your eyes I saw the future together.
You just look away in the distance.

Make me laugh:
say you know what you want.

You said you'd find me,
but I can't see New York.

I'm trying not to move,
it's just your ghost passing through.

How could I resist?
You are desire.
When all is said and done,
who can love you and still be standing?

I thought you'd see with me,
you wouldn't have to be something new.

Maybe you never learned to take.

I never saw a light move like yours.

And you would if I would,
but you never would.

You just lift your lamp, and I will follow.

I have to get to Texas,
said I have to get to Texas,
and I'll give away my blue blue dress.

In the lush Virginia hills,
they kept her as long as they could.

In the garden,
I did no crime.

Things are getting desperate
when all the boys can't be men.

She may beytray all that she loves.

It's funny the things that you find in the rain.

I got the anti-Christ in the kitchen yelling at me again.

And I thought
with you
I wouldn't have to be
a magazine.

Oh Virginia,
do you remember
when the land held your hand?

I was built to tolerate your temperature.

I shaved every place where you'd been, boy.

Come along now little darling.
we'll see how brave you are.

Cutting my hands up every time I touch you.

Everybody looking at you,
Here, take ahold of my hand.
Yeah, I can hear them.

Love, it's one of life's complications.
I did not ask for this:
Oh, but love-- yes, you did.


I put my hand in my father's glove.
I run off
where the drifts get deeper.

My dark twin,
the annihilating Feminine,
does not need
civilizing.

Boys on my left side,
Boys on my right side,
Boys in the middle
and you're not here.

Don't tell me a woman did this to you.

Boy, your boots can leave a mess.

I guess I didn't want to notice,
the stars gone from your eyes.

She's been everybody else's girl.
Maybe one day she'll be her own.

I can fight by your side and withstand anything.

I guessed the kind of man
that you would turn out to be.

Purple sunset, orange moon.

Yes, I know what you think of me--
you never shut-up.
Yeah, I can hear that.

I believe in defending what we once stood for.

I have to trust you'll know
this digital ghost.

Victory is an elusive whore.
She is as easily mine
as she is yours.

The wind is making speeches,
and the rain sounds like a round of applause.

I wonder when will I learn
blue isn't red.
Everybody knows this.

And you losing you
was not a part of this plan.

Slip and slide my way through this charade.

What will be, will be
over my dead body.

What you stole, I would have given freely.

A six pack of coke and a bottle of Jack.
"Whatever you do," he said, "look after that."

Figures that my courage would choose to sell out now.

Jodie wears a hat although it hasn't rained for six days.
She says a girl needs a gun these days.

Got enough guilt to start my own religion.

Last time I checked,
He came to light the lamp for everyone.

Just what God needs,
one more victim.

And my heart is sick of being in chains.

He says, Will you ever learn--
You're just an empty cage, girl,
if you kill the bird.

Butterflies don't belong in nets.

It's kind of funny things you think
at times like these.
Like, I haven't seen Barbados
so I must get out of this.

F. Scott Fitzgerald Quotes

“Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that you've had.”

"Her beauty climbed the rolling slope, it came into the room, rustling ghost-like through the curtains..."

“I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity, and her flaming self respect. And it's these things I'd believe in, even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn't all she should be. I love her, and it is the beginning of everything.”

"You never know what's coming for you."

“In the real dark night of the soul it is always three o' clock in the morning, day after day.”

"'You'll find another.'
'God! Banish the thought. Why don't you tell me that if the girl had been worth having she'd have waited for you? No, sir, the girl really worth having won't wait for anybody.'"

"Amory wondered how people could fail to notice that he was a boy marked for glory, and when faces of the throng turned toward him and ambiguous eyes stared into his, he assumed the most romantic of expressions and walked on the air cushions that lie on the asphalts of fourteen..."

"No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart."

"The Montana sunset lay between the mountains like a giant bruise from which darkened arteries spread across a poisoned sky."

"For the intimate revelations of young men or at least the terms in which they express them are usually plagiaristic and marred by obvious suppressions."

"Do you always watch for the longest day of the year and then miss it? I always watch for the longest day in the year and then miss it."

"The rich get richer and the poor get — children.”

“'They’re a rotten crowd’, I shouted across the lawn. ‘You’re worth the whole damn bunch put together.'”

“I had taken two finger-bowls of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental, and profound.”

"As he took her hand she saw him look her over from head to foot, a gesture she recognized and that made her feel at home, but gave her always a faint feeling of superiority to whoever made it. If her person was property she could exercise whatever advantage was inherent in its ownership."

“Her voice is full of money.”

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

"I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again."

"In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars."

"Reserving judgments is a matter of infinite hope."

"...one of those men who reach such an acute limited excellence at twenty−one that everything afterward savors of anti−climax."

"I'm not sentimental--I'm as romantic as you are. The idea, you know, is that the sentimental person thinks things will last--the romantic person has a desperate confidence that they won't."

"He smiled understandingly-much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to face--the whole external world for an instant, and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself."

"Here's to alcohol, the rose colored glasses of life."

"Things are sweeter when they're lost. I know--because once I wanted something and got it. It was the only thing I ever wanted badly, Dot, and when I got it it turned to dust in my hand."

"'Think how you love me,' she whispered.'I don't ask you to love me always like this, but I ask you to remember.'
'You'll always be like this to me.'
'Oh no; but promise me you'll remember.' Her tears were falling. 'I'll be different, but somewhere lost inside me there'll always be the person I am tonight.'"

""Ah," she cried, "you look so cool." Their eyes met, and they stared together at each other, alone in space. With an effort she glanced down at the table.
"You always look so cool," she repeated. She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw."

"Draw your chair up close to the edge of the precipice, and I’ll tell you a story."

"It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being."

"I want leisure to read—an immense amount."

"I want to know you moved and breathed in the same world with me."

"All life is just a progression toward and then a recession from one phrase-- 'I love you.'"

"It’s a great advantage not to drink among hard drinking people."

"I’ve been drunk for about a week now, and I thought it might sober me up to sit in a library."

"Angry, and half in love with her, and tremendously sorry, I turned away."

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise."

"Sometimes it is harder to deprive oneself of a pain than of a pleasure."

"Americans, while occasionally willing to be serfs, have always been obstinate about being peasantry."

"All I kept thinking about, over and over, was 'You can't live forever; you can't live forever.'"

"Then, as though it had been waiting on a near by roof for their arrival, the moon came slanting suddenly through the vines and turned the girl's face the color of white roses."

"They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered."

"Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues, and this is mine: I am one of the few honest people that I have ever known."

"For a moment the last sunshine fell with romantic affection upon her glowing face; her voice compelled me forward breathlessly as I listened - then the glow faded, each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk."

"You're the only girl I've seen for a long time that actually did look like something blooming."

"And after reading Thoreau I felt how much I have lost by leaving nature out of my life."

"With people like us our home is where we are not."

"So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight."