77 Quotes by George Gissing

Honest Winter, snow-clad, and with the frosted beard, I can welcome not uncordially; But that long deferment of the calendar's promise, that weeping gloom of March and April, that bitter blast outraging the honour of May how often has it robbed me of heart and hope?

Life is a huge farce, and the advantage of possessing a sense of humour is that it enables one to defy fate with mocking laughter.

Life, I fancy, would very often be insupportable, but for the luxury of self-compassion.

A womanly occupation means, practically, an occupation that a man disdains.

Persistent prophecy is a familiar way of assuring the event.

But the loneliness of her life had developed in her a sensitiveness which could not endure situations such as the present; difficulties which are of small account to people who take their part in active social life, harassed her to the destruction of all peace.

Confound it! It's just because nobody does anything that things have come to this pass!

Walker's a fool and Quarmby's an ass,' remarked her father.

Since the publication of his first book he had avoided as far as possible all knowledge of what the critics had to say about him; his nervous temperament could not bear the agitation of reading these remarks, which, however inept, define an author and his work to so many people incapable of judging for themselves.