Margaret Oliphant Quotes

• Temptations come, as a general rule, when they are sought.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Inspirational, Temptation, Self Help

  Margaret Oliphant (2014). “Miss Marjoribanks”, p.533, The Floating Press

  45 Copy quote

• Oh, never mind the fashion. When one has a style of one's own, it is always twenty times better.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Fashion, Being Yourself, Style

  Margaret Oliphant (2015). “Delphi Works of Margaret Oliphant with Complete Stories of the Seen and Unseen”, p.2639, Delphi Classics

  15 Copy quote

• The middle of life is the testing-ground of character and strength.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Character, Life Is, Middle

  Margaret Oliphant (2011). “Sheridan”, p.152, Cambridge University Press

  5 Copy quote

• It is so seldom in this world that things come just when they are wanted.

  Margaret Oliphant

  World, Timing, This World

  Margaret Oliphant (2015). “Delphi Works of Margaret Oliphant with Complete Stories of the Seen and Unseen”, p.2376, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• Laughing is not the first expression of joy. ... A person laughs in idleness, for fun, not for joy. Joy has nothing, nothing but the old way of tears.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Fun, Expression, Laughing

  7 Copy quote

• One only says it is one's duty when one has something disagreeable to do.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Duty, Disagreeable

  Margaret Oliphant (2015). “Delphi Works of Margaret Oliphant with Complete Stories of the Seen and Unseen”, p.1514, Delphi Classics

  10 Copy quote

• The ideal is the flower-garden of the mind, and very apt to run to weeds unless carefully tended.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Running, Weed, Flower

  9 Copy quote

• To have a man who can flirt is next thing to indispensable to a leader of society.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Flirty, Flirting, Men

  Margaret Oliphant (2014). “Miss Marjoribanks”, p.131, The Floating Press

  15 Copy quote

• every generation has a conceit of itself which elevates it, in its own opinion, above that which comes after it.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Generations, Opinion, Conceit

  Margaret Oliphant (2015). “Delphi Works of Margaret Oliphant with Complete Stories of the Seen and Unseen”, p.7470, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• I think reading a novel is almost next best to having something to do.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Reading, Thinking, Next

  Margaret Oliphant (2015). “Delphi Works of Margaret Oliphant with Complete Stories of the Seen and Unseen”, p.838, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• Imagination is the first faculty wanting in those that do harm to their kind.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Compassion, Imagination, Firsts

  4 Copy quote

• There is nothing so costly as bargains.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Shopping, Bargains

  4 Copy quote

• Even in misery we love to be foremost, to have the bitter in our cup acknowledged as more bitter than that of others.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Cups, Misery, Bitter

  7 Copy quote

• All perfection is melancholy.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Perfection, Melancholy

  Margaret Oliphant (2015). “Delphi Works of Margaret Oliphant with Complete Stories of the Seen and Unseen”, p.3695, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• Good works may only be beautiful sins, if they are not done in a true spirit.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Beautiful, Kindness, Done

  Margaret Oliphant (2015). “Delphi Works of Margaret Oliphant with Complete Stories of the Seen and Unseen”, p.2040, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• ... up to this date, I have never been shut up in a separate room, or hedged off with any observances. My study, all the study I have attained to, is the little 2nd drawing room where all the (feminine) life of the house goes on; and I don't think I have ever had two hours undisturbed (except at night, when everybody is in bed) during my whole literary life.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Night, Thinking, Two

  Margaret Oliphant (2002). “The Autobiography of Margaret Oliphant”, p.67, Broadview Press

  8 Copy quote

• It is often easier to justify one's self to others than to respond to the secret doubts that arise in one's own bosom.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Self, Doubt, Secret

  Margaret Oliphant Oliphant (1880). “He that will not when he may”

  5 Copy quote

• Next to happiness, perhaps enmity is the most healthful stimulant of the human mind.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Mind, Enmity, Next

  Margaret Oliphant (2015). “Delphi Works of Margaret Oliphant with Complete Stories of the Seen and Unseen”, p.2048, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• there are some people who never learn; indeed, few people learn by experience, so far as I have ever seen.

  Margaret Oliphant

  People, Experience

  Mrs. Oliphant (Margaret) (1894). “A House in Bloomsbury”

  7 Copy quote

• Perhaps, on the whole, embarrassment and perplexity are a kind of natural accompaniment to life and movement; and it is better to be driven out of your senses with thinking which of two things you ought to do than to do nothing whatever, and be utterly uninteresting to all the world.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Thinking, Two, Movement

  Margaret Oliphant (2014). “Miss Marjoribanks”, p.430, The Floating Press

  7 Copy quote

• Against the long years when family bonds make up all that is happiest in life, there must always be reckoned those moments of agitation and revolution, during which the bosom of a family is the most unrestful and disturbing place in existence.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Family, Years, Long

  Margaret Oliphant (2015). “Delphi Works of Margaret Oliphant with Complete Stories of the Seen and Unseen”, p.2359, Delphi Classics

  7 Copy quote

• Married people do stand up so for each other when you say a word, however they may fight between themselves.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Fighting, People, May

  Margaret Oliphant (2015). “Delphi Works of Margaret Oliphant with Complete Stories of the Seen and Unseen”, p.1529, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• Somehow even a popular fallacy has an aspect of truth when it suits one's own case.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Truth, Suits, Cases

  Margaret Oliphant (2015). “Delphi Works of Margaret Oliphant with Complete Stories of the Seen and Unseen”, p.2308, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• Spring cold is like the poverty of a poor man who has had a fortune left him - better days are coming.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Spring, Men, Poverty

  Margaret Oliphant (1873). “Innocent: A Tale of Modern Life : in 2 Volumes”, p.34

  5 Copy quote

• Terror of being found out is not always a preservative, it sometimes hurries on the act which it ought to prevent.

  Margaret Oliphant

  Guilt, Sometimes, Found

  Mrs. Oliphant (Margaret) (1894). “A House in Bloomsbury”

  4 Copy quote

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