The Hireling Quotes

“Shut the windows, draw the curtains, keep the rumour out!”
― L.P. Hartley, The Hireling

“The civilian world was a dull place, a tired three-piece orchestra, waiting for the word 'fun'.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Hireling

“One's self is a blackmailer that can never be paid off.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Hireling

“The bathroom where he felt most at ease, for it was there that he got rid of the accretions of the flesh - got rid of them almost with passion, for however tired he might be, he was never too tired to take a bath. Not from any physical need, but from a need to find a more personal setting, somewhere that felt like home, to seek the reassurance of sponge and soap, and toothbrush.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Hireling

“When one has made up one's mind that things are going well, and that one has helped to make them go well, it takes some time to realize that in fact the opposite is true, and that things are not going well.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Hireling

“He seldom spoke his thoughts and still more rarely, and then only in anger, did he speak his feelings, because to expose them made him feel naked, and worse than naked—flayed.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Hireling

“Apart from work, he didn't need an outside stimulus, except that curious one of picking a quarrel. It was in hostility that his being fulfilled itself. As a soldier should be, he was sudden and fierce in quarrel.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Hireling

“How is it, she asked herself, that every experience I have now turns to happiness — even this unhopeful one of trying to make Leadbitter enjoy the transepts? Am I entitled to it? Would Philip mind, that I can think of him and not grieve for him? Have I become heartless? Am I wicked? Is this euphoria as groundless as my depression was? — more groundless, since I then had something to feel depressed about and I have nothing, really, to feel happy about? Is it the conviction of well-being that sometimes goes before an illness?”
― L.P. Hartley, The Hireling

“Their conversations usually followed the same pattern: beginning with Lady Franklin and her obsession, they ended with Leadbitter and his fictitious home-life. Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies; but Lady Franklin asked a great many questions and Leadbitter told her a great many lies.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Hireling

“She shook her head impatiently; the idea of being in competition with other unhappy people was distasteful to her. It was an argument that her friends sometimes used, very delicately of course—that other people had more reason for grief than she had. As if grief could be measured by its causes, and not by the victim's capacity for suffering!”
― L.P. Hartley, The Hireling

“Recognition of his own value, by himself and others, was of paramount importance to the car-hire driver.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Hireling

“Nature meant his face to be expressive but he did not; for an expression is a give-away and he did not want to give anything away.”
― L.P. Hartley, The Hireling