Ouida
18 quotes
Biography
"One must pray first, but afterwards one must help oneself. God does not care for cowards.--"Wanda"
"Even of death Christianity has made a terror which was unknown to the gay calmness of the Pagan and the stoical repose of the Indian."
"It is the trifles of life that are its bores, after all. Most men can meet ruin calmly, for instance, or laugh when they lie in a ditch with their own knee-joint and their hunter's spine broken over the double post and rails: it is the mud that has choked up your horn just when you wanted to rally the pack; it's the whip who carries you off to a division just when you've sat down to your turbot; it's the ten seconds by which you miss the train; it's the dust that gets in your eyes as you go down to Epsom; it's the pretty little rose note that went by accident to your house instead of your club, and raised a storm from madame; it's the dog that always will run wild into the birds; it's the cook who always will season the white soup wrong—it is these that are the bores of life, and that try the temper of your philosophy."
"What use was it to argue with a little idiot like this? Indeed, peasants never do argue; they use abuse."
"When one has not father, or mother, or brother, and all one's friends have barely bread enough for themselves, life cannot be very easy, nor its crusts very many at any time."
"Brussels is a gay little city that lies as bright within its girdle of woodland as any butterfly that rests upon moss."
"There are wrongs for which religion makes no provision, and of which it has no comprehension.--"Wanda"
"It is the north wind that lashes men into Vikings it is the soft luscious south wind which lulls them to lotus dreams."
"Woman's fatal weakness is to desire sympathy and comprehension.--"Wanda"
"What we love once, we love forever. Shall there be joy in heaven over those who repent, yet no forgiveness for them upon earth?--"Wanda"
"Men are always optimists when they look inwards, and pessimists when they look around them."
"The longest absence is less perilous to love than the terrible trials of incessant proximity."
"Truth is a rough honest helter-skelter terrier that none like to see brought into their drawing rooms."
"A cruel story runs on wheels and every hand oils the wheels as they run."
"What is it that love does to a woman? Without it she only sleeps with it alone she lives."
"It is the north wind that lashes men into Vikings it is the soft luscious south wind which lulls them to lotus dreams."
"The longest absence is less perilous to love than the terrible trials of incessant proximity."
"Fame has only the span of the day they say. But to live in the hearts of people-that is worth something."