Eustacia Vye Quotes

“She had Pagan eyes, full of nocturnal mysteries . . . Assuming that the souls of men and women were visible essences, you could fancy the colour of Eustacia's soul to be flame-like.”
― Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native

“Eustacia Vye was the raw material of a divinity. On Olympus she would have done well with a little preparation. She had the passions and instincts which make a model goddess, that is, those which make not quite a model woman. Had it been possible for the earth and mankind to be entirely in her grasp for a while, had she handled the distaff, the spindle, and the shears at her own free will, few in the world would have noticed the change in government. . . .”
― Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native

“But do I desire unreasonably much in wanting what is called life—music, poetry, passion, war, and all the beating and pulsing that is going on in the great arteries of the world? That was the shape of my youthful dream; but I did not get it.”
― Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native