John Halifax, Gentleman Quotes

“[It] was the first time in my life I ever knew the meaning of that rare thing, tenderness. A quality different from kindliness, affectionateness, or benevolence; a quality which can exist only in strong, deep, and undemonstrative natures, and therefore in its perfection is oftenest found in men.”
― Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, John Halifax, Gentleman

“I could hear the voice that, speaking to me, was always tender with pity—yet not pity enough to wound: I could see the peculiar smile just creeping round his grave mouth—that irrepressible smile, indicating the atmosphere of thorough heart-cheerfulness, which ripens all the fruits of a noble nature, and without which the very noblest has about it something unwholesome, blank, and cold.”
― Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, John Halifax, Gentleman

“The sheriff listened uneasily to a sound, very uncommon at elections, of the populace expressing an opinion contrary to that of the lord of the soil.”
― Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, John Halifax, Gentleman

“It is one of my decided opinions that married people ought to have no one, be the tie ever so close and dear, living permanently with them, to break the sacred duality — no, let me say the unity of their home.”
― Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, John Halifax, Gentleman

“I have seen many a face that was more good-looking — never one that looked half so good.”
― Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, John Halifax, Gentleman

“Manhood had come to him, both in character and demeanour, not as it comes to most young lads, an eagerly-desired and presumptuously-asserted claim, but as a rightful inheritance, to be received humbly, and worn simply and naturally.”
― Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, John Halifax, Gentleman

“The lad, like many another, owed nothing to his father but his mere existence—Heaven knows whether that gift is oftenest a curse or a boon.”
― Dinah Maria Mulock Craik, John Halifax, Gentleman