H. Rider Haggard

“There is no such things as magic, though there is such a thing as knowledge of the hidden ways of Nature.”

“Strange are the pictures of the future that are painted on the dark curtain of our ignorance.”

“I do not believe that a man should be restrained in his daily actions by being afraid of punishment after death.”

“Ah! how little knowledge does a man acquire in his life. He gathers it up like water, but like water it runs between his fingers, and yet, if his hands be but wet as though with dew, behold a generation of fools call him a wise man.”

“It is a well-known fact that very often, putting the period of boyhood out of the argument, the older we grow the more cynical and hardened we become.”

“Civilisation is only a crust over the abyss of human nature.”

“That which is alive hath known death, and that which is dead can never die, for in the Circle of the Spirit life is naught and death is naught.”

“Patience is a virtue, and it's a fruit of the Spirit.”

“The thing that has been is the thing that is, and the thing that is is the thing that shall be.”

“The great wheel of Fate rolls on like a Juggernaut, and crushes us all in turn, some soon, some late.”

“There is no love that is not self-love.”

“To be loved is a grand thing, a great honour, and women, I am sure, are prouder of it than of all the gold and jewels in the world.”

“Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.”

“Yea, I have lived and I have loved.”

“So I learned my lesson, and I don't believe in generosity or gratitude any more. I believe in giving and taking. And that's all.”