A biography for Richard Jefferieshasn’t been written yet.
“It is easier to speak to those who have had similar experiences than to those who are as yet ignorant.”
“Grief falls upon human beings as the rain, not selecting good or evil, visiting the innocent, condemning those who have done no wrong.”
“To the darkness and the night, the spirits seem to have a natural claim - it is their realm; the boldest of us have sometimes felt an unaccountable creeping in the thick darkness.”
“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.”
“I desire a greatness of soul, an irradiance of mind, a deeper insight, a broader hope.”
“It would seem that the ant works its way tentatively, and, observing where it fails, tries another place and succeeds.”
“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.”
“The labourer's muscle is that of a cart-horse, his motions lumbering and slow.”
“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.”
“There are people in this servile world who will endure any trampling, and at the first beck rush delightedly to proffer their assistance.”
“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.”
“A woman can see a woman so clearly - faluts, excellences, details - all are so clear to her.”
“Give me power of soul, so that I may actually effect by its will that which I strive for.”
“Is there anything so delicious as the first exploration of a great library - alone - unwatched?”
“A man, to read, must read alone. He may make extracts, he may work at books in company; but to read, to absorb, he must be solitary.”
“No tyrant, however evil, has yet lacked ready hands to execute his most abominable will. To read how eagerly men have rushed to serve the despot is the bitterest, the saddest matter of history; it is the saddest sight in our own day.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Ever since the world began, it has been the belief of mankind that desolate places are the special haunt of supernatural beings.”