Everybody must be managed. Queens must be managed. Kings must be managed, for men want managing almost as much as women, and that's saying a good deal.
Thomas HardyRead
Thoroughly convinced of the impossibility of his own suit, a high resolve constrained him not to injure that of another. This is a lover's most stoical virtue, as the lack of it is a lover's most venial sin.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True love involves a selfless commitment to the beloved's happiness, even in the face of personal despair.
In this quote, Thomas Hardy highlights the noble virtue of a lover who, despite feeling an overwhelming sense of impossibility regarding their own romantic aspirations, chooses to uphold the dignity of another's affections. This self-restraint reflects a deep sense of honor in love, suggesting that true love requires not just desire but also the capacity to prioritize the feelings and prospects of the beloved, even when the lover's own aspirations seem futile. The absence of this virtue, according to Hardy, indicates a more trivial or forgivable flaw in character.
Themes
LoveSelflessnessVirtueCommitmentSacrifice
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a wedding speech to highlight the essence of true love.
More from Thomas Hardy
All quotes →Because what's the use of learning that I am one of a long row only - finding out that there is set down in some old book somebody just like me, and to know that I shall only act her part; making me sad, that's all. The best is not to remember your nature and your past doings have been just like thousands' and thousands', and that your coming life and doings'll be like thousands' and thousands'.
Thomas HardyRead
But nothing is more insidious than the evolution of wishes from mere fancies, and of wants from mere wishes.
Thomas HardyRead
I wish I had never been born--there or anywhere else.
Thomas HardyRead
Her affection for him was now the breath and life of Tess's being; it enveloped her as a photosphere, irradiated her into forgetfulness of her past sorrows, keeping back the gloomy spectres that would persist in their attempts to touch her—doubt, fear, moodiness, care, shame. She knew that they were waiting like wolves just outside the circumscribing light, but she had long spells of power to keep them in hungry subjection there.
Thomas HardyRead
The trees have inquisitive eyes, haven't they? -that is, seem as if they had. And the river says,-'Why do ye trouble me with your looks?' And you seem to see numbers of to-morrows just all in a line, the first of them the biggest and clearest, the others getting smaller and smaller as they stand further away; but they all seem very fierce and cruel and as if they said, 'I'm coming! Beware of me! Beware of me!
Thomas HardyRead
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