Quotes by George Gissing

About George Gissing:

George Robert Gissing was an English novelist who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. Gissing also worked as a teacher and tutor throughout his life. He published his first novel, Workers in the Dawn, in 1880. His best known novels, which are published in modern editions, include The Nether World (1889), New Grub Street (1891), and The Odd Women (1893).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

But just understand the difference between a man like Reardon and a man like me. He is the old type of unpractical artist; I am the literary man of 1882. He won't make concessions, or rather, he can't make them; he can't supply the market. I--well, y...

George Gissing

Well, I wasn't going to abuse him. I was only going to ask: Is there any quality which distinguishes his work from that of twenty struggling writers one could name? Of course not. He's a clever, prolific man; so are they. But he began with money and ...

George Gissing

A womanly occupation means, practically, an occupation that a man disdains.

George Gissing

Money is made at Christmas out of holly and mistletoe, but who save the vendors would greatly care if no green branch were procurable? One symbol, indeed, has obscured all others--the minted round of metal. And one may safely say that, of all the age...

George Gissing

The earning of money should be a means to an end; for more than thirty years--I began to support myself at sixteen--I had to regard it as the end itself.

George Gissing

Nowhere is the English genius of domesticity more notably evident than in the festival of afternoon tea. The [...] chink of cups and the saucers tunes the mind to happy repose.

George Gissing

For the man sound of body and serene of mind there is no such thing as bad weather; every day has its beauty, and storms which whip the blood do but make it pulse more vigorously.

George Gissing

Have the courage of your desire.

George Gissing

It is the mind which creates the world around us, and even though we stand side by side in the same meadow, my eyes will never see what is beheld by yours, my heart will never stir to the emotions with which yours is touched.

George Gissing

Persistent prophecy is a familiar way of assuring the event.

George Gissing

That is one of the bitter curses of poverty; it leaves no right to be generous.

George Gissing

Flippancy, the most hopeless form of intellectual vice.

George Gissing

It is because nations tend towards stupidity and baseness that mankind moves so slowly; it is because individuals have a capacity for better things that it moves at all.

George Gissing

I don't advise. You mutn't give any weight to what I say, except in so far as your own judgment approves it.

George Gissing

I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.

George Gissing

It is familiarity with life that makes time speed quickly. When every day is a step in the unknown, as for children, the days are long with gathering of experience . . .

George Gissing

He liked to feel the soft little hand clasping his own fingers, so big and coarse in comparison, and happily so strong. For in the child's weakness he felt an infinite pathos; a being so entirely helpless, so utterly dependent upon others' love, stan...

George Gissing

For it is the mind which creates the world about us, and, even though we stand side by side in the same meadow, my eyes will never see what is beheld by yours, my heart will never stir to the emotions with which yours is touched.

George Gissing

Life is a huge farce, and the advantage of possessing a sense of humour is that it enables one to defy fate with mocking laughter.

George Gissing

Life, I fancy, would very often be insupportable, but for the luxury of self-compassion.

George Gissing

Author Bio

  • NameGeorge Gissing
  • DescriptionEnglish novelist
  • BornNovember 22, 1857
  • DiedDecember 28, 1903
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist
  • WorksThe Nether World; New Grub Street; Born In Exile; The Odd Women