Elizabeth Gaskell (29th September 1810 – 12th November 1886) was an English Novelist and short story writer during the Victorian Era. Her now-historical novels offered detailed descriptions of human life all through society and she is one of the several classic female authors that is still much revered today.
Best known for novels such as North and South, and Wives and Daughters, her first novel was actually Mary Barton, before she went on to write a biography of Charlotte Bronte, The Life of Charlotte Bronte published in 1857.
Often referred to as Mrs Gaskell, Elizabeth Stevenson married Unitarian minister William Gaskell in 1832 and settled in the Manchester area, a move that went on to influence Elizabeth’s writing in the industrial genre.
After the loss of two children, one still born, and one in infancy, the author was inspired to write Mary Barton. By 1850 the couple and their children had moved to a villa at the affluent 84 Plymouth Grove, Manchester where the author continued writing and wrote the rest of her literary works. Gaskell regularly received friends to the property including Charles Dickens, John Ruskin, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Charlotte Bronte. A blue plaque still stands at the house today.
Elizabeth Gaskell’s words have lived on through the days, and here are some wise quotes to show why:
“Loyalty and obedience to wisdom and justice are fine; but it is still finer to defy arbitrary power, unjustly and cruelly used–not on behalf of ourselves, but on behalf of others more helpless.”
“How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly.”
“Those who are happy and successful themselves are too apt to make light of the misfortunes of others.”
“A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.”
“There is nothing like wounded affection for giving poignancy to anger.”
“People may flatter themselves just as much by thinking that their faults are always present to other people’s minds, as if they believe that the world is always contemplating their individual charms and virtues.”
“But the future must be met, however stern and iron it be. ”
“Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.”
“I know you despise me; allow me to say, it is because you don’t understand me.”
“But the cloud never comes in that quarter of the horizon from which we watch for it.”
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