Words matter. These are the best Richard Jefferies Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
Almost every labourer has his Sunday suit, very often really good clothes, sometimes glossy black, with the regulation ‘chimney pot’. His unfortunate walk betrays him, dress how he will.
Beauty – what is beauty, forsooth? Form and color; that is, surface only. Fortune – what is fortune? Nothing is ever a pleasure or a real profit to him who has to labour for it. Truth – you die in the pursuit, and the sea beats the beach as it did a thousand years ago. The stolid are alone happy.
Do you always do as you would like to do were it in your power? I find that circumstances force me often to act in a manner quite opposite to what I should prefer; I am, of course, judged by my acts, but do they really afford a true key to my character? I think not.
Every woman likes her own way, but no woman can endure to see another woman master even over a man who does not concern her.
It would seem that the ant works its way tentatively, and, observing where it fails, tries another place and succeeds.
The lover of nature has the highest art in his soul.
It is quite true that women like courage, and that boldness often goes a long way; but it is questionable whether with high-bred natures a subdued, quiet, and delicate manner does not go still further.
Some, I verily believe, delight to be slave-men; it is a joy to them, and they would not change their condition; not only miserable village wretches, but men in good position, well-to-do sycophants.
That I may have the soul-life, the soul-nature, let divine beauty bring to me divine soul.
Look at another person while living; the soul is not visible, only the body which it animates. Therefore, merely because after death the soul is not visible is no demonstration that it does not still live.
Give me power of soul, so that I may actually effect by its will that which I strive for.
To the soul, there is no past and no future; all is, and will be ever, in now. For artificial purposes time is mutually agreed on, but there is really no such thing.
There are people in this servile world who will endure any trampling, and at the first beck rush delightedly to proffer their assistance.
The old Greeks dwelt on the tendency of human affairs to drift downwards irresistibly to unhappiness. Guilt – that is, untoward and often involuntary actions – pulls generation after generation heavily as lead down, down, down.
A kestrel can and does hover in the dead calm of summer days, when there is not the faintest breath of wind. He will, and does, hover in the still, soft atmosphere of early autumn, when the gossamer falls in showers, coming straight down as if it were raining silk.
If every plant and flower were found in all places, the charm of locality would not exist. Everything varies, and that gives the interest.
It is injurious to the mind as well as to the body to be always in one place and always surrounded by the same circumstances.
Many labourers can trace their descent from farmers or well-to-do people, and it is not uncommon to find here and there a man who believes that he is entitled to a large property in Chancery, or elsewhere, as the heir.
An inspiration – a long, deep breath of the pure air of thought – could alone give health to the heart.
Is there anything so delicious as the first exploration of a great library – alone – unwatched?
The ‘crownd’ is still the unit, the favourite coin of the labourers, especially the elder folk. They use the word something in the same sense as the dollar, and look with regret upon the gradual disappearance of the broad silver disc with the figure of ‘St. Gaarge’ conquering the dragon.
The workman in the true sense of the word – the artist in guns – is either extinct, or hidden in an obscure corner. There is no individuality about modern guns. One is exactly like another.
It is easier to speak to those who have had similar experiences than to those who are as yet ignorant.
The impression left after watching the motions of birds is that of extreme mobility – a life of perpetual impulse checked only by fear.
This sunlight linked me through the ages to that past consciousness.
