Quotes from my copywork

Here are some quotes that I've collected from the classics I've read in the past few months, and that I've used for copywork. Some are serious, some are funny, all are from books I enjoyed.


“But then over these convictions there came a third,--equally strong, which told him that the girl loved the younger man and did not love him, and that if he loved the girl it was his duty as a man to prove his love by doing what he could to make her happy. As he walked up and down the walk by the moat.....he schooled himself to feel that that, and that only, could be his duty. What did love mean if not that? What could be the devotion which men so often affect to feel if it did not tend to self-sacrifice on behalf of the beloved one? A man would incur any danger for a woman, would subject himself to any toil,--would even die for her! But if this were done simply with the object of winning her, where was that real love of which sacrifice of self on behalf of another is the truest proof? So, by degrees, he resolved that the thing must be done.” —The thoughts of Roger Carbury, The Way We Live Now

“'Is he a young man, papa?'
'About forty, I believe,' said the archdeacon.
'Oh!' said Griselda. Had her father said eighty, Mr Arabin would not have appeared to her to be very much older.” —Barchester Towers

“'You may go how and when and where you please, so that you leave my house tomorrow. You have disgraced me, sir; you have disgraced yourself, and me, and your sisters.'
'I am glad at least sir, that I have not disgraced my mother,' said Bertie.” —Barchester Towers

"As far as I have had opportunity of judging, it appears to me that the usual style of letter-writing among women is faultless, except in three particulars: A general deficiency of subject, a total inattention to stops, and a very frequent ignorance of grammar." —Henry Tilney, Northanger Abbey

“Madam your wife and I did not 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 was not me.” —Squire Hamley, Wives and Daughters

'I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.' —Jane, Jane Eyre

“I distinguish reserve from shyness, because I imagine shyness would please, if it knew how; whereas, reserve is indifferent whether it pleases or not.” —The Life of Charlotte Bronte