Demelza Quotes

“Strange sometimes how easy bitter words came, how hard the kind ones.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“A nice frame doesn’t make a nice picture.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“They are all sentimentalists at heart, the Poldarks, Verity thought, and she realized suddenly for the first time that it was a dangerous trait, far more dangerous than any cynicism.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“Whatever she suffered, whatever loss came to her, she would throw it off, for it was not in her nature to go under. Although she was the woman and he a fierce and sometimes arrogant man, hers was the stronger nature because the more pliant.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“... however steady a man is, if he has an unstable wife to whom he is devoted, then there is a corrosion at work on his own foundations.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“He was not a man who spoke his innermost feelings easily, but now he saw himself powerless to help her, and only words of his and not actions would give her aid. 'Nothing else matters but you,' he said. 'Remember that. All my relatives and friends - and Elizabeth, and this house and the mine... I'd throw them in the dust and you know it - you know it. If you don't know it, then all these months I've failed and no words I can give you now will make it otherwise. I love you, Demelza and we've had such happiness. And we're going to have it again. Take hold of that, my sweet. Hold it and keep it, for no one else can.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“Everything at the moment, my dear, no doubt seems disgusting. I know the mood too well. But being in that mood, Ross, is like being out in the frost. If we do not keep on the move we shall perish.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“An hour before dawn they went down to the cove, following the bubble of the stream and the descending combe, with a glowworm here and there green-lit like a jewel in the dark.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“Tedn for we to be setting the world in step. Tedn sense, tedn natural, tedn right, tedn safe.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“George stared across the street. 'There is only one trouble with the Poldarks,' he said after a moment. 'They cannot take a beating.'
'And only one trouble with the Warleggans,' said Ross. 'They never know when they are not wanted.'
George's color deepened. 'But they can appreciate and remember an insult.'
'Well, I trust you will remember this one.' Ross turned his back and went down the steps into the tavern.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“Perhaps,” said Demelza, trembling all over. “Perhaps I’d ought to have asked for an introduction seeing it’s so long since we met.” “I don’t doubt you have been well consoled in my absence,” said Ross. “You were not concerned to come and see whether I was or no.” “It seems that I was unwelcome when I did.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“The ribbon of milky mist still lay in the gully. It stretched down to the sea, and there were patches across the sand hills like steam from a kettle.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“He pushed her nails away from his eyes, accepting her bites as if they were no part of him. He pulled the cloth away from her throat, gripped it. Her screaming stopped. Her eyes started tears, died, grew big. She knew there was death, but life called her, sweet life, all the sweetness of youth, not yet gone. Dwight, the baronet, years of triumph, crying, dying.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“can’t let other people’s misery spoil our lives. We can’t, for else there’d be no happiness for anyone ever again. We can’t be all tied up one with another like that, or why did God make us separate? While we’ve got our happiness we must enjoy it, for who knows how long it will last?”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“Give me some surety if you want to continue. It is not late yet.” Ross offered his gold watch, which had belonged to his father and which he seldom wore.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“He was a goat tethered to the peg of his own character and could only consume the riches of the earth that came within his range. And she had bound herself to stay in his circle for the rest of her life…”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“Demelza was beginning to feel like a lion tamer who has been putting his pets through their paces and finds them getting out of hand.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“...Here, beast, you shall be the chairman, and mind you call us to order." He leaned forward and dropped the cat on the empty seat.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“No bal maidens or spallers”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“He thought how commonplace and rough it was, seeing the house he had built behind the figure of the girl he had married. Everything was so crude, made with loving hands maybe, but crude and rough. Loving hands were not enough; you had to have skill and time.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“Walking here with the sun-warmed air on his face he had come up against the fact that it was good just to be alive.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“He was not discontented, but he was too restless, too preoccupied. Each day led so relentlessly to the next, linked by cause and effect, anticipation and result, preparation and achievement.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“however steady a man is, if he has an unstable wife to whom he is devoted, then there is a corrosion at work on his own foundations.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“But when his mother died, even while he was crying, something within him had risen up, a barrier to shield off his weakness and tenderness and frailty. He had thought, All right, then, I’ve lost her and I’m alone. All right then. The adult impulse followed the childish.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“It was the unexpected tribute that broke Ross up. He had hardened himself to all the rest. Not being a religious man, he had no resources to meet the loss of the child except his own resentful will. Inwardly he railed against heaven and circumstance, but the very cruelty of the blow touched his character at its toughest and most obstinate.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“But moral argument is the most potent force in the world, Captain. It was that more than force of arms that defeated us in America.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“She knew that he had never seen her before. She knew the value of first impressions.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“sigh, for her returning life was a tonic to his soul. Whatever she suffered, whatever loss came to her, she would throw it off, for it was not in her nature to go under. Although she was the woman and he a fierce and sometimes arrogant man, hers was the stronger nature because the more pliant. That did not mean that she did not feel Julia’s death as deeply and as bitterly, but he saw that she would recover first.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“He had planned so much for Julia, had watched her grow from a scarcely separable entity, seen her nature unfold, the very beginning of traits and characteristics make their quaint showing. It was hardly believable that they would never develop, that all that potential sweetness should dry up at its fount and turn to dust. Hardly believable and hardly bearable.”
― Winston Graham, Demelza

“Sir Hugh squeezed her arm so often that Demelza began to wonder if the show was all a pretext for being with her in dark and drafty places. In one room, where the wind was so high that they might have been out of doors, the rear lantern went out and Sir Hugh put his short, thick arm around her waist. But she slipped away with a faint rustle of silk and moved quickly up to Ross. The stables were the best-”
― Winston Graham, Demelza