F. Marion Crawford > Quotes

“A cool breeze stirred my hair at that moment, as the night wind began to come down from the hills, but it felt like a breath from another world.”
― Francis Marion Crawford, For the Blood is the Life and Other Stories

“I have seen an evil thing this night,' he said; 'I have seen how the dead drink the blood of the living. And the blood is the life.”
― Francis Marion Crawford, For the Blood is the Life and Other Stories

“What has life given me? The beginning is fire, the end is a heap of ashes, and between the end and the beginning lies all the pain in the world.”
― Francis Marion Crawford

“I will come,' the priest answered, 'for I have read in old books of these strange beings which are neither quick nor dead, and which lie ever fresh in their graves, stealing out in the dusk to taste life and blood.”
― Francis Marion Crawford, For the Blood is the Life and Other Stories

“Every woman who loves a man and is anxious about him is sure that if she can be alone with him for a moment, he will tell her the truth about his condition. The experience of thousands of years has not taught women that if there is one person in the world from whom a man will try to conceal his ills and aches, it is the woman he loves, because he would rather suffer everything than give her pain”
― Francis Marion Crawford, Marietta: A Maid of Venice

“He looked at her in silent wonder for a moment, happy beyond words to be with her”
― Francis Marion Crawford, Marietta: A Maid of Venice

“Fill your mouth with pebbles, and howl at the sea, if you cannot do anything else.”
― F. Marion Crawford, Wandering Ghosts

“No. I will only say that if you do not like your life, it is your own fault. How can a man of your age talk of being melancholy, or of the hollowness of existence? Are you consumptive? Are you subject to hereditary insanity? Are you deaf, like Aunt Bluebell? Are you poor, like—lots of people? Have you been crossed in love? Have you lost the world for a woman, or any particular woman for the sake of the world? Are you feeble-minded, a cripple, an outcast? Are you—repulsively ugly?" She laughed again. "Is there any reason in the world why you should not enjoy all you have got in life?”
― Francis Marion Crawford, The Upper Berth

“What has life given me? The beginning is fire; the end is a heap of ashes; and between the end and the beginning lies all the pain of the world. Let me sleep, since I cannot die.”
― F. Marion Crawford, The Dead Smile

“There is no such consolation to a born coward as a logical reason for not doing what he is afraid to do”
― Francis Marion Crawford, Marietta: A Maid of Venice

“the half hour, and all that might happen to him before morning. The glorious and triumphant certainty which first love brings to every man when it is first returned, still swelled his heart and filled the air he breathed, so that while breathing deep, he could not breathe enough”
― F. Marion Crawford, Marietta

“But love itself does not argue. At first it is seen far off, like a beautiful bird of rare plumage, among flowers, on a morning in spring; it comes nearer, it is timid, it advances, it recedes, it poises on swiftly beating wings, it soars out of sight, but suddenly it is nearer than before; it changes shapes, and grows vast and terrible, till its flight is like the rushing of the whirlwind; then all is calm again, and in the stillness a sweet voice sings the chant of peace or the melancholy dirge of an endless regret; it is no longer the dove, nor the eagle, nor the storm that leaves ruin in its track—it is everything, it is life, it is the world itself, for ever and time without end, for good or evil, for such happiness as may pass all understanding, if God will, and if not, for undying sorrow”
― F. Marion Crawford, Marietta

“This youngster gradually became an intimate visitor of the family. He talked little, but he sat long. He filled the father's pipe when it was empty, gathered up the mother's knitting needle, or ball of worsted, when it fell to the ground, stroked the sleek coat of the tortoise-shell cat, and replenished the teapot for the daughter from the bright copper kettle that sang before the fire. All these quiet little offices may seem of trifling import, but when true love is translated into Low Dutch it is in this way that it eloquently expresses itself.”
― F. Marion (Francis Marion) Crawford, The Lock and Key Library The most interesting stories of all nations: American

“The best which a man means to do is generally better than the best he does, and it is perhaps the best he is capable of doing”
― Francis Marion Crawford, Marietta: A Maid of Venice

“Before I had been long in bed he entered. He was, as far as I could see, a very tall man, very thin, very pale, with sandy hair and whiskers and colourless grey eyes. He had about him, I thought, an air of rather dubious fashion; the sort of man you might see in Wall Street, without being able precisely to say what he was doing there—the sort of man who frequents the Café Anglais, who always seems to be alone and who drinks champagne; you might meet him on a race-course, but he would never appear to be doing anything there either. A little over-dressed—a little odd. There are three or four of his kind on every ocean steamer. I made up my mind that I did not care to make his acquaintance, and I went to sleep saying to myself that I would study his habits in order to avoid him. If he rose early, I would rise late; if he went to bed late, I would go to bed early. I did not care to know him. If you once know people of that kind they are always turning up.”
― Francis Marion Crawford, The Upper Berth

“The situation was saved; Brisbane was going to tell a story.”
― F. Marion Crawford, The Upper Berth

“To a man, first love is a victory, to a girl it is a sweet wonder, and a joy, and a tender longing, all in one”
― Francis Marion Crawford, Marietta: A Maid of Venice

“But what I thought of most was the ghostly figure I had seen in the garden that first night after my arrival. I went out every evening and wandered through the walks and paths; but, try as I might, I did not see my vision again. At last, after many days, the memory grew more faint, and my old moody nature gradually overcame the temporary sense of lightness I had experienced. The summer turned to autumn, and I grew restless. It began to rain. The dampness pervaded the gardens, and the outer halls smelled musty, like tombs; the grey sky oppressed me intolerably.”
― Francis Marion Crawford, The Upper Berth

“Copyright, 1894
by
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS PUBLISHERS' NOTE. The two stories by Mr. Crawford, presented in this volume, have been in print before, having been originally written for two Christmas annuals which were issued some years back. With the belief that the stories are, however, still unknown to the larger portion of Mr. Crawford's public, and in the opinion that they are well worthy of preservation in more permanent form, the publishers have decided to reprint them as the initial volume of the "Autonym" library.”
― Francis Marion Crawford, The Upper Berth

“...like most discontented and disappointed people who have no real object in life, Orsino Saracinesca read a good deal....”
― Francis Marion Crawford

“I hear certain cynics laugh, and cry that all that has been said before. Do not laugh, my good cynic. You are too small a man to laugh at such a great thing as love. Prayers have been said before now by many, and perhaps you say yours, too. I do not think they lose anything by being repeated, nor you by repeating them. You say that the world is bitter, and full of the Waters of Bitterness. Love, and so live that you may be loved—the world will turn sweet for you, and you shall rest like me by the Waters of Paradise.”
― Francis Marion Crawford, The Upper Berth

“...I thought seriously of shutting myself up from the world to live the life of a hermit, and to die as soon as possible.”
― F. Marion Crawford, By the Waters of Paradise

“Some people don't seem to be so dead, when they are dead, as others are. Jim Benton was like that.”
― F. Marion Crawford, The Complete Horror Books of F. Marion Crawford: The Witch of Prague, The Upper Berth, Khaled: A Tale of Arabia, For the Blood Is the Life, The Screaming Skull, The Doll's Ghost, Man Overboard!

“What has life given me? The beginning is fire, the end a heap of ashes; and between the end and the beginning lies all the pain of the world. Let me sleep, since I cannot die.”
― F. Marion Crawford, Wandering Ghosts: The Dead Smile, The Screaming Skull, Man Overboard!, For the Blood is the Life, The Upper Berth, By the Water of Paradise, The Doll's Ghost

“There was a depth of life and vital light in them that told of the pent-up force of a hundred generations of Persian magii.”
― F. Marion Crawford, The Complete Horror Books of F. Marion Crawford: The Witch of Prague, The Upper Berth, Khaled: A Tale of Arabia, For the Blood Is the Life, The Screaming Skull, The Doll's Ghost, Man Overboard!

“Upon the uninviting mattresses were carefully folded together those blankets which a great modern humorist has aptly compared to cold buckwheat cakes. The question of towels was left entirely to the imagination. The glass decanters were filled with a transparent liquid faintly tinged with brown, but from which an odor less faint, but not more pleasing, ascended to the nostrils, like a far-off sea-sick reminiscence of oily machinery. Sad-coloured curtains half-closed the upper berth. The hazy June daylight shed a faint illumination upon the desolate little scene. Ugh! how I hate that state-room!”
― Francis Marion Crawford, The Upper Berth

“This is the age of incompetent criticism in matters artistic, and no one is too ignorant to volunteer an opinion.”
― F. Marion Crawford, Delphi Complete Works of F. Marion Crawford

“Perhaps, too, some sad-faced, listless, melancholy youth, who feels that the world is very hollow, and that life is like a perpetual funeral service, just as I used to feel myself, may take courage from my example”
― Francis Marion Crawford, The Upper Berth

“It is maintained by the most eminent divines that even miracles cannot change the course of nature.”
― Francis Marion Crawford, The Upper Berth

“Not half so serious as it is to abuse everything unreasonably. If abuse is your particular talent, abuse something that ought to be abused. Abuse the Conservatives—or the Liberals—it does not matter which, since they are always abusing each other. Make yourself felt by other people. You will like it, if they don't. It will make a man of you. Fill your mouth with pebbles, and howl at the sea, if you cannot do anything else. It did Demosthenes no end of good you know. You will have the satisfaction of imitating a great man.”
― Francis Marion Crawford, The Upper Berth