The Half Sisters Quotes

“In her hours of sorrow she had often wished that she might lie down and die; and, on the occasion of an epidemic, which carried off a great number of persons, she had looked with a species of envy on the funerals constantly passing the streets.”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“If we would only condescend, when we are dealing with reasonably conscientious people, to believe what they tell us, we should generally arrive nearer the truth than by asserting our claim to shrewdness and cleverness by drawing our own inferences.”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“Life does not end in a catastrophe like a book or a play. We may, and do feel, after some occurrence which has shaken our being to its centre, as though we had reached the end of the world, and that our next step must be out on sheer nothinguess; but it is not so. Life goes on until death receives it;”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“Bianca experienced a sense of something almost like fear, at the aspect of so much humanity quelled down and buried beneath a concrete of inflexible obedience to an artificial authority, through which no blade of genuine spontaneity could spring. All aspirations of devotion, even the very works of mercy to which they had dedicated themselves, seemed to have been drilled to rules, till they weighed down on the soul like a nightmare.”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“Would you desire to be without sorrow or sufferings," said Lord Melton, gently; " and is making yourself happy precisely the highest thing to be aimed at? ' Happiness' as ' our being's end and aim,' has always seemed to me a most lame and impotent conclusion' for such a noble and mysterious drama as the life of even the most insignificant of God's creatures. As much of it as falls out for us incidentally, we are of course glad to possess; but to make it a distinct and recognised aim, to convert our life's pilgrimage into ' a search after happiness,' seems to me drivelling—to the last point of paralytic imbecility.”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“If women were machines, were in very deed our property, then, indeed, all this might answer; but they are not, and there is no possibility of educating them up to the point of being conveniently fascinating, and then stopping short;—they have higher qualities existing in them, and unless those qualities are appealed to, you cannot hold them, or influence them; they are living souls, and you cannot dogmatise to a life, nor cut it out according to pattern.”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“What is the most stringent caution ever offered to young women to lead their life by? It is, ' Do not do so and so, do not say so and so, before MEN, they do not admire it.' When it was the question about giving women education—' Men do not like learning in women,' was the grand argument used. Men are allowed to examine into their religious opinions, to be philosophers, to be sceptics, to be no religion at all, if they please; but has it not been said a million times, 'No man would permit his wife to be an infidel,' —not because it is a bad thing for her, personally, but because 'religion in a woman looks so lovely.”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“he talked a great deal about justice and mercy, " and love to his species," but he never gave any of the " species" within his reach any peace, unless they conformed in all things to his will; he preferred giving assistance to those who needed it, in words, rather than any thing else; but his worst enemies were obliged to admit, that he always uttered very beautiful sentiments, in a very beautiful tone of voice.”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“Love and friendship are not amusements, they are solemn covenants; and woe to those who seek to extract the pleasure whilst they ignore the duties”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“God sent you to me at my worst need," replied Bianca, whose heart bounded at the refined and gentle tone of kindness of her unknown sister. We are unable to say whether it was the force du sang which influenced them, but certainly those two women felt drawn to each other more strongly than actual circumstances could explain.”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“When they joined the company at supper, Mrs. Helmsby recognised, in a comfortable, portly, well-dressed woman, an old school-fellow, with whom she had once sworn everlasting friendship, which, however, had not survived the wear and tear of the first twelve months after leaving school. Circumstances separated them, and absence had almost made them forget each other,”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“It is not very much more than a century since he lived, and all his wonderful journeys and romantic discoveries have been explored in their length and breadth, by turnpike commissioners, if not by railway surveyors, and the mysteries have been subdued by statistics, till one knows where every road leads, and we are allowed to entertain no doubt about the turnings of the longest lane; every foot of ground is known, and there is no hope left of being able to lose oneself;—and that, as every body must have felt, is a dreadful drawback on the pleasure and excitement of finding oneself in a wild romantic looking country.”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“What is the Scotch lady, like?" asked Alice. "Oh, nothing at all out of the way—she does not seem to have a word to say for herself." "Well, I hope they will be happy," said Alice; " but upon my word I always feel as if it were such a risk to. run. How terrible it must be, if, after you are married, you should see any one you like better than your husband!”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“To manage the house well, and to see that the dinner was punctual and well appointed; to be very quiet, and not talk nonsense, or rather to talk very little of any thing; were the principal qualities desired in wives and daughters”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“With the natural egotism of sorrow, her mother had kept Bianca constantly with her; it was the only solace she had, and she was not aware how she was blanching the most brilliant and sunny portion of her daughter's days.”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“There are so many more accidental things in this word than premeditated ones!”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“PHILLIP HELMSBY, the father of both Alice and Bianca, was the son of an extensive iron master in the neighbourhood of Newcastle. When quite a young man, his father sent him to Genoa on business connected with the house, and whilst there, he became passionately enamoured of a beautiful Italian girl, the daughter of the friends in whose family he lived. He endeavoured to obtain her hand in marriage, but both families raised a storm of objections—his father would not hear of a Papist for a daughter-in-law, nor would her father consent to her marrying a heretic”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters

“He kept up a true Englishman's silence, and endeavoured to turn his share of the room into his castle, by surrounding himself with an impassable moat of stiffness and reserve.”
― Geraldine Jewsbury, The Half Sisters