Zitate von Thomas Hardy

„Ich finde, wenn Kinder geboren werden, die man nicht haben will, dann sollten sie gleich tot gemacht werden, ehe sie Seelen kriegen, und man sollte sie gar nicht groß werden und herum laufen lassen!“

—  Thomas Hardy, buch Jude the Obscure

Jude the Obscure

„Für eine Frau ist es schwierig, ihre Gefühle in einer Sprache zu definieren, die hauptsächlich von Männern gemacht wird, um ihre auszudrücken.“

—  Thomas Hardy

„All das bedeutet schwere Herbstarbeit für ihn und seine Hände.“

—  Thomas Hardy

„Ihre Zuneigung zu ihm war jetzt der Atem und das Leben von Tesss Wesen; es umhüllte sie wie eine Photosphäre, strahlte sie in die Vergesslichkeit ihrer vergangenen Sorgen aus und hielt die düsteren Gespenster zurück, die bei ihren Versuchen, sie zu berühren, fortbestehen würden - Zweifel, Angst, Launenhaftigkeit, Besorgnis, Scham. Sie wusste, dass sie wie Wölfe direkt vor dem eigrenzenden Licht warteten, aber sie hatte lange Zaubermacht, um sie dort in hungriger Unterwerfung zu halten.“

—  Thomas Hardy

„Der Arzt sagte, solche Kinder kämen jetzt manchmal vor – Kinder, wie sie die vorige Generation nicht gekannt habe -, das Ergebnis neuer Anschauungen vom Leben. Es ist, als sähen diese Kinder alle seine Schrecknisse, ehe sie alt genug sind, die nötige Widerstandskraft dagegen aufzubringen. Er sagt, es wäre der Anfang des kommenden allgemeinen Wunsches, nicht zu leben.“

—  Thomas Hardy

„… sie bewegte sich in einer mentalen Wolke vielfarbiger Idealitäten, die alle finsteren Eventualitäten durch ihre Helligkeit in den Schatten stellte.“

—  Thomas Hardy

„Aber manche Frauen brauchen nur die Herausforderung, damit sie ihr gewachsen sind.“

—  Thomas Hardy

„Wenn Frauen geheim sind, sind sie tatsächlich geheim. Und nicht selten werden sie erst mit dem Aufkommen eines zweiten Liebhabers geheim.“

—  Thomas Hardy

„I shall do one thing in this life - one thing certain - that is, love you, and long for you, and keep wanting you till I die.“

—  Thomas Hardy, buch Far from the Madding Crowd

Quelle: Far from the Madding Crowd

„She was at that modulating point between indifference and love, at the stage called having a fancy for. It occurs once in the history of the most gigantic passions, and it is a period when they are in the hands of the weakest will.“

—  Thomas Hardy, buch The Return of the Native

Quelle: The Return of the Native

„A strong woman who recklessly throws away her strength, she is worse than a weak woman who has never had any strength to throw away.“

—  Thomas Hardy

Variante: When a strong woman recklessly throws away her strength she is worse than a weak woman who has never had any strength to throw away.
Quelle: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

„Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.“

—  Thomas Hardy

Quelle: The Personal Notebooks Of Thomas Hardy

„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 Hardy

Quelle: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

„Why didn’t you tell me there was danger? Why didn’t you warn me? Ladies know what to guard against, because they read novels that tell them of these tricks; but I never had the chance of discovering in that way; and you did not help me!“

—  Thomas Hardy

Quelle: Tess of the D'Urbervilles

„They spoke very little of their mutual feeling; pretty phrases and warm expressions being probably unnecessary between such tried friends.“

—  Thomas Hardy, buch Far from the Madding Crowd

Variante: They spoke very little of their mutual feelings: pretty phrases and warm attentions being probably unnecessary between such tried friends.
Quelle: Far from the Madding Crowd

„Only a man harrowing clods
In a slow silent walk
With an old horse that stumbles and nods
Half asleep as they stalk.“

—  Thomas Hardy

" In Time of 'The Breaking Of Nations'" http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/hardy/poems/breaking.html (1915), lines 1-12, from Moments of Vision (1917); the title is derived from lines of Jeremiah 51:20: "Thou art my battle ax and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations."
Kontext: p>Only a man harrowing clods
In a slow silent walk
With an old horse that stumbles and nods
Half asleep as they stalk.Only thin smoke without flame
From the heaps of couch-grass;
Yet this will go onward the same
Though Dynasties pass.Yonder a maid and her wight
Come whispering by:
War's annals will cloud into night
Ere their story die.</p

„War's annals will cloud into night
Ere their story die.“

—  Thomas Hardy

" In Time of 'The Breaking Of Nations'" http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/hardy/poems/breaking.html (1915), lines 1-12, from Moments of Vision (1917); the title is derived from lines of Jeremiah 51:20: "Thou art my battle ax and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations."
Kontext: p>Only a man harrowing clods
In a slow silent walk
With an old horse that stumbles and nods
Half asleep as they stalk.Only thin smoke without flame
From the heaps of couch-grass;
Yet this will go onward the same
Though Dynasties pass.Yonder a maid and her wight
Come whispering by:
War's annals will cloud into night
Ere their story die.</p

„A lover without indiscretion is no lover at all.“

—  Thomas Hardy, buch The Hand of Ethelberta

The Hand of Ethelberta (1876), ch. 20
Kontext: A lover without indiscretion is no lover at all. Circumspection and devotion are a contradiction in terms.

„Happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain.“

—  Thomas Hardy, buch The Mayor of Casterbridge

Quelle: The Mayor of Casterbridge