The White Monkey Quotes

“Light-heartedness always made Soames suspicious - there was generally some reason for it.”
― John Galsworthy, The White Monkey

“And yet, in books were comfort and diversion; and they were wanted!”
― John Galsworthy, The White Monkey

“That tendency...to lie awake between the hours of two and four, when the chrysalis of faint misgiving becomes so readily the butterfly of panic.”
― John Galsworthy, The White Monkey

“Mechanism! Everywhere -- mechanism! Devices for getting away from life so complete that there seemed no life to get away from.”
― John Galsworthy, The White Monkey

“Get Up! Go out! Do something! But what - what was worth doing? What had any meaning in it? She saw herself doing - extravagant things; nursing sick women; tending pale babies; making a speech in Parliament; riding a steeplechase; hoeing turnips in knickerbockers - decorative. And she lay perfectly still, bound by the filaments of her self-vision. So long as she saw herself she would do nothing - she knew it - for nothing would be worth doing! And it seemed to her, lying there so still, that not to see herself would be worse than anything. And she felt that to feel this was to acknowledge herself caged for ever.”
― John Galsworthy, The White Monkey

“He won't be happy till he gets it," said Michael, at last: "The only thing is, you see, he doesn't know what IT is.”
― John Galsworthy, The White Monkey

“Όλοι ήταν ανήσυχοι - όλοι οι άνθρωποι που ήξερε. Τουλάχιστον οι νέοι, οι νέοι στη ζωή και στα γράμματα. Πάρε τα μυθιστορήματά τους. Μητ' ένα στα είκοσι που να σε ξεκουράζει, που να 'χει εκείνο το κάτι που σε κάνει ν' ανοίγεις ένα βιβλίο αποζητώντας κάποιο καταφύγιο. Μυθιστορήματα που κυλούσαν γοργά, μέσα σε κακό και φασαρία, σαν τις μοτοσυκλέτες - βίαια, ναι, αλλά κι έξυπνα. Πόσο την είχε βαρεθεί την εξυπνάδα.”
― John Galsworthy, The White Monkey

“Πόσο ψηλά ήταν γύρω του τα σπίτια και πόσο μικροί οι άνθρωποι ! Τόσο μικρά έντομα και να χτίσουν την τεράστια τούτη πόλη, να τη φωτίσουν έτσι που να λαμποκοπά σαν ένας πελώριος όγκος που η ανταύγεια του να θαμπώνει το χρώμα τ'ουρανού !... Ασύλληπτη, η δραστηριότητα αυτών των εντόμων ! Κι ήταν παράλογο να σκέφτεται πως η αγάπη του για ένα άλλο έντομο είχε σημασία.”
― John Galsworthy, The White Monkey

“Mechanism! Everywhere – mechanism! Devices for getting away from life so complete that there seemed no life to get away from.”
― John Galsworthy, The White Monkey