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"Oh! that look of love!' continued he, between his teeth, as he bolted himself into his own private room. 'And that cursed lie; which showed some terrible shame in the background, to be kept from the light in which I thought she lived perpetually! Oh, Margaret, Margaret! Mother, how you have tortured me! Oh! Margaret, could you not have loved me? I am but uncouth and hard, but I would never have led you into any falsehood for me."
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"I stood in your doorway this morningdreaming you'd turn aroundyou'd tilt your headyou'd softly whisper stayor that you'd grab my armsto shake me while askingwhat the hell are we doingwe loveeach otherand this is not rightso we will make this worknow stay!You poured your coffee. Stirred the spoon like a crystal manwith your back to me and not a sound. the fridge humming elegies while the clock ticked onand the streets are so clean here people rushing to workand maybe I should be tooby nowat this agethis stagethis town.I will stand in that doorway dreamingfor many nights to come."

"I'll be too drunk to fight when you ask why I prefer to hurt, so I'll start hurling stupid phrases like I love you at your naked chest, but no matter what I try, they'll all sound like cheap threats."

"I stood still, vision blurring, and in that moment, I heard my heart break. It was a small, clean sound, like the snapping of a flower's stem."

"Isn't it funny how the memories you cherish before a breakup can become your worst enemies afterwards? The thoughts you loved to think about, the memories you wanted to hold up to the light and view from every angle - it suddenly seems a lot safer to lock them in a box, far from the light of day and throw away the key. It's not an act of bitterness. It's an act if self-preservation. It's not always a bad idea to stay behind the window and look out at life instead, is it?"

"It will be foolish not to get your heart broken, even once.For having a broken heart makes you realize the immense capability it possesses to mend and heal itself and to love far more intensely, with every affixed piece of it that was once broken and torn apart.."

"Every time, he breaks your hearts. And every time, he expects me to pick up the pieces."

"What broke your heart so badThat you had to close every door, That you say you have a dark soulAnd can't utter the word 'love' anymore?"

"A man always finds it hard to realize that he may have finally lost a woman's love, however badly he may have treated her."

"I wonder if I could take back every 'I love you' ever said to you, would I do it?"

"The only thing a boyfriend was good for was a shattered heart."
Explore more quotes by Elizabeth Gaskell

"Margaret was not a ready lover, but where she loved she loved passionately, and with no small degree of jealousy."

"Was it a doubt - a fear - a wandering uncertainty seeking rest, but finding none - so tear-blinded were its eyes - Mr. Thornton, instead of being shocked, seemed to have through that very stage of thought himself, and could suggest where the exact ray of light was to be found, which should make the dark places plain. Man of action as he was, busy in the world's great battle, there was a deeper religion binding him to God in his heart, in spite of his strong willfulness, through all his mistakes, than Mr. Hale ever dreamed."

"He spoke as if the answer were a matter of indifference to him. But it was not so. For all his pain, he longed to see the author of it. Although he hated Margaret at times, when he thought of that gentle familiar attitude and all the attendant circumstances, he had a restless desire to renew her picture in his mind--a longing for the very atmosphere she breathed. He was in the Charybdis of passion, and must perforce circle and circle ever nearer round the fatal centre."

"He shrank from hearing Margaret's very name mentioned; he, while he blamed her ' while he was jealous of her ' while he renounced her ' he loved her sorely, in spite of himself."

"If she lives, she shall be my wedded wife. If she dies--mother, I can't speak of what I shall feel if she dies.' His voice was choked in his throat."

"All the morning since he got up he had been trying to fight through his duties-leaning against a hope-a hope that first had bowed, and then had broke as soon as he really tried its weight. There was not a sign of Sylvia's liking for him to be gathered from the most careful recollection of the past evening. It was of no use thinking there was. It was better to give it up altogether and at once. But what if he could not? What if the thought of her was bound up with his life; and that once torn out by his own free will, the very roots of his heart must come also?"

"Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom."

"It seemed as though he gave way all at once; he was so languid that he could not control his thoughts; they would wander to her; they would bring back the scene,- not of his repulse and rejection the day before but the looks, the actions of the day before that. He went along the crowded streets mechanically, winding in and out among the people, but never seeing them, -almost sick with longing for that one half-hour-that one brief space of time when she clung to him, and her heart beat against his-to come once again."

"But suppose it was truth double strong, it were no truth to me if I couldna take it in. I daresay there's truth in yon Latin book on your shelves; but it's gibberish and no truth to me, unless I know the meaning o' the words."
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