Quotes by Elizabeth Gaskell

A little credulity helps one on through life very smoothly.

A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.

He had not an ounce of superfluous flesh on his bones, and leanness goes a great way towards gentility.

How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly!

I'll not listen to reason... reason always means what someone else has got to say.

Madam your wife and I didn't hit it off the only time I ever saw her. I won't say she was silly, but I think one of us was silly, and it wasn't me.

My heart burnt within me with indignation and grief; we could think of nothing else. All night long we had only snatches of sleep, waking up perpetually to the sense of a great shock and grief. Every one is feeling the same. I never knew so universal a feeling.

People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people's minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms and virtues.

Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.

To be sure a stepmother to a girl is a different thing to a second wife to a man!