Thomas Hardy

"The value of old age depends upon the person who reaches it. To some men of early performance it is useless. To others, who are late to develop, it just enables them to finish the job."

"If Galileo had said in verse that the world moved, the inquisition might have let him alone."

"Poetry is emotion put into measure. The emotion must come by nature, but the measure can be acquired by art."

"Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change."

"Patience, that blending of moral courage with physical timidity."

"I was court-martial in my absence, and sentenced to death in my absence, so I said they could shoot me in my absence."