Of course poets have morals and manners of their own, and custom is no argument with them.
Thomas Hardy

Patience, that blending of moral courage with physical timidity.
Thomas Hardy

Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure can be acquired by art.
Thomas Hardy

Some folk want their luck buttered.
Thomas Hardy

That man's silence is wonderful to listen to.
Thomas Hardy

The main object of religion is not to get a man into heaven, but to get heaven into him.
Thomas Hardy

The offhand decision of some commonplace mind high in office at a critical moment influences the course of events for a hundred years.
Thomas Hardy

The resolution to avoid an evil is seldom framed till the evil is so far advanced as to make avoidance impossible.
Thomas Hardy

The sky was clear - remarkably clear - and the twinkling of all the stars seemed to be but throbs of one body, timed by a common pulse.
Thomas Hardy

The sudden disappointment of a hope leaves a scar which the ultimate fulfillment of that hope never entirely removes.
Thomas Hardy

The value of old age depends upon the person who reaches it. To some men of early performance it is useless. To others, who are late to develop, it just enables them to finish the job.
Thomas Hardy

There are accents in the eye which are not on the tongue, and more tales come from pale lips than can enter an ear. It is both the grandeur and the pain of the remoter moods that they avoid the pathway of sound.
Thomas Hardy

There is a condition worse than blindness, and that is, seeing something that isn't there.
Thomas Hardy

Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change.
Thomas Hardy

Yes; quaint and curious war is! You shoot a fellow down you'd treat if met where any bar is, or help to half-a-crown.
Thomas Hardy

You can do anything with bayonets except sit on them.
Thomas Hardy

You was a good man, and did good things.
Thomas Hardy