Ann Radcliffe quotes

Ann Radcliffe was an English author renowned for her pioneering work in the Gothic novel genre. Her imaginative stories blended mystery, romance, and supernatural elements, significantly shaping English literature. She inspired generations of writers and remains a key figure in Gothic fiction. Here are 20 of her quotes:

Fate sits on these dark battlements and frowns, And as the portal opens to receive me, A voice in hollow murmurs through the courts Tells of a nameless deed.

Ann Radcliffe

But hark! what shriek of death comes in the gale, And in the distant ray what glimmering sail Bends to the storm?-Now sinks the note of fear! Ah? wretched mariners!-no more shall day Unclose his cheering eye to light ye on your way!

Ann Radcliffe

I never trust people's assertions, I always judge of them by their actions.

Ann Radcliffe

Employment is the surest antidote to sorrow.

Ann Radcliffe

Happiness arises in a state of peace, not of tumult.

Ann Radcliffe

The passions are the seeds of vices as well as of virtues, from which either may spring, accordingly as they are nurtured. Unhappy they who have never been taught the art to govern them!

Ann Radcliffe

The world ridicules a passion which it seldom feels; its scenes, and its interests, distract the mind, deprave the taste, corrupt the heart, and love cannot exist in a heart that has lost the meek dignity of innocence.

Ann Radcliffe

When one can hear people moving, one does not so much mind, about one's fears.

Ann Radcliffe

Poverty cannot deprive us of many consolations. It cannot rob us of the affection we have for each other, or degrade us in our own opinion, of in that of any person, whose opinion we ought to value.

Ann Radcliffe

And since, in our passage through this world, painful circumstances occur more frequently than pleasing ones, and since our sense of evil is, I fear, more acute than our sense of good, we become the victims of our feelings, unless we can in some degree command them.

Ann Radcliffe

When the mind has once begun to yield to the weakness of superstition, trifles impress it with the force of conviction.

Ann Radcliffe

The refreshing pleasure from the first view of nature, after the pain of illness, and the confinement of a sick-chamber, is above the conceptions, as well as the descriptions, of those in health.

Ann Radcliffe

What are riches - grandeur - health itself, to the luxury of a pure conscience, the health of the soul; - and what the sufferings of poverty, disappointment, despair - to the anguish of an afflicted one!

Ann Radcliffe

I tasted too what was called the sweet of revenge - but it was transient, it expired even with the object, that provoked it.

Ann Radcliffe

Virtue and taste are nearly the same, for virtue is little more than active taste, and the most delicate affections of each combine in real love.

Ann Radcliffe

There is some comfort in dying surrounded by one's children.

Ann Radcliffe

It is dismal coming home, when there is nobody to welcome one!

Ann Radcliffe

If the weak hand, that has recorded this tale, has, by its scenes, beguiled the mourner of one hour of sorrow, or, by its moral, taught him to sustain it - the effort, however humble, has not been vain, nor is the writer unrewarded.

Ann Radcliffe