Thomas Hardy

"Tragedy may be created by an accident upon a railway as well as by the fall of a king."

"In the ill-judged execution of well-meant plans lies the chief tragedy."

"The beauty of association can be quite independent of the beauty of the thing associated."

"Memory is the treasure house of the mind."

"To be an architect you must understand music as well as mathematics."

"Suffering is the price of consciousness."

"In every act of creation, there is an element of destruction."

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

"Character is fate."

"The most accomplished fact cannot shade the most prospective theory."

"A gaze is not in itself power unless backed by opinion."

"The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow."

"Cruelty is the only thing one cannot forgive."

"The most cherished hopes are those we do not acknowledge."

"To find beauty in labour is to discover paradise."

"The world breaks everyone; afterward many are strong at the broken places."

"Silence has depths and richness that speech cannot capture."

"A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea the higher than himself."

"Thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool."

"There is no greater power than the power of an idea."

"The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."

"We are creatures of impulse rather than reflection."

"Loneliness is the poverty of self; solitude is the richness of self."

"The eye is a window, but the heart is a fortress."

"To be is to be subject to fate."

"Every moment has its sorrow and every moment has its sweetness."

"A man of science must have feelings, or he ceases to be a man."

"The ineffable charm of youth lies not in its beauty but in its hopefulness."

"Art is long, life is short, and criticism is free."

"He who knows not when to yield, knows not when to conquer."