Richard Jefferies

“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.”

“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.”

“An inspiration - a long, deep breath of the pure air of thought - could alone give health to the heart.”

“The impression left after watching the motions of birds is that of extreme mobility - a life of perpetual impulse checked only by fear.”

“The heart looks into space to be away from earth.”

“Now is eternity; now is the immortal life.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“When even the most strictly logical mind looks round and investigates the phenomena attending its own existence, perhaps the first fact to attract attention by its strongly marked prominence is the remarkable loneliness of man. He stands alone.”

“The heart has a yearning for the unknown, a longing to penetrate the deep shadow and the winding glade, where, as it seems, no human foot has been.”

“That I may have the soul-life, the soul-nature, let divine beauty bring to me divine soul.”

“This sunlight linked me through the ages to that past consciousness.”

“Science, as illustrated by the printing press, the telegraph, the railway, is a double-edged sword. At the same moment that it puts an enormous power in the hands of the good man, it also offers an equal advantage to the evil disposed.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The cottages erected by farmers or by landlords are now, one and all, fit and proper habitations for human beings; and I verifly believe it would be impossible throughout the length and breadth of Wiltshire to find a single bad cottage on any large estate, so well and so thoroughly have the landed proprietors done their work.”

“The lover of nature has the highest art in his soul.”

“If every plant and flower were found in all places, the charm of locality would not exist. Everything varies, and that gives the interest.”

“I believe in the human form; let me find something, some method, by which that form may achieve the utmost beauty.”