Wilkie Collins

“I have degraded myself by ever thinking of him as my husband.”

— Wilkie Collins

The law will argue any thing, with any body who will pay the law for the use of its brains and its…

— Wilkie Collins

“The deserts of Arabia are innocent of our civilised desolation-the ruins of Palestine are incapable of our modern gloom!”

— Wilkie Collins

“The English intellect is sound, so far as it goes,but it has one grave defect--it is always cautious in the wrong place.”

— Wilkie Collins

But I am a just man, even to my enemy - and I will acknowledge, beforehand, that they are cleverer brains than…

— Wilkie Collins

“Dont speak of tomorrow.Let the music speak to us tonight,in a happier language than ours.”

— Wilkie Collins

Any woman who is sure of her own wits, is a match, at any time, for a man who is not sure…

— Wilkie Collins

“Miss Fairlie laughed with a ready good-humour, which broke out as brightly as if it had been part of the sunshine above…

— Wilkie Collins

The best men are not consistent in good-- why should the worst men be consistent in evil.

— Wilkie Collins

“People in high life have all the luxuries to themselves - among others, the luxury of indulging their feelings. People in low…

— Wilkie Collins

The woman who first gives life, light, and form to our shadowy conceptions of beauty, fills a void in our spiritual nature…

— Wilkie Collins

“Shall I confess it, Mr. Hartright? I sadly want a reform in the construction of children. Nature's only idea seems to be…

— Wilkie Collins

“If he was right, here was our quiet English house suddenly invaded by a devilish Indian Diamond - bringing after it a…

— Wilkie Collins

“Now I will be anything else you please, except dull. You may say I have been dull already? As I am an…

— Wilkie Collins

“The sketch of the summer-house which she had given me on the morning of our farewell, and which had never been separated…

— Wilkie Collins

“Excuse my dress. I was half an hour late this morning. When you lose half an hour in this house, you never…

— Wilkie Collins

I am a citizen of the world, and I have met, in my time, with so many different sorts of virtue, that…

— Wilkie Collins

“Who cares for his causes of complaint? Are you to break your heart to set his mind at ease? No man under…

— Wilkie Collins

“Nothing in this world is hidden forever. The gold which has lain for centuries unsuspected in the ground, reveals itself one day…

— Wilkie Collins

“At any time, and under any circumstances of human interest, is it not strange to see how little real hold the objects…

— Wilkie Collins

“A man with delicately-strung nerves often says and does things which often lead us to think more meanly of him than he…

— Wilkie Collins

“[...] we will leave this place, and go into other lodgings - you as the mistress; and I as the maid." "I…

— Wilkie Collins

“I have heard all I ever want to hear about the past," he said; "and I know what I most wanted to…

— Wilkie Collins

I haven't much time to be fond of anything ... but when I have a moment's fondness to bestow, most times ...…

— Wilkie Collins

“My sister Sarah, with all the advantages of youth, was, strangely enough, less pliable. She did full justice to Pesca's excellent qualities…

— Wilkie Collins

“[...] Louisa's attention, which had been wandering more and more during the progress of Magdalen's inquiries, wandered away altogether.”

— Wilkie Collins

“Demandez-vous s´il y a une explication au mystere de la vie et de la mort”

— Wilkie Collins

I have heard, as everybody else has, of a spirit's haunting a house ; but I have had my own personal experience…

— Wilkie Collins

The books - the generous friends who met me without suspicion - the merciful masters who never used me ill!

— Wilkie Collins

“We meet as mortal enemies hereafter - let us, like gallant gentlemen, exchange polite attentions in the meantime.”

— Wilkie Collins

“The small pulse of the life within me, and the great heart of the city around me, seemed to be sinking in…

— Wilkie Collins

The fool's crime is the crime that is found out and the wise man's crime is the crime that is not found…

— Wilkie Collins

No sensible man ever engages, unprepared, in a fencing match of words with a woman.

— Wilkie Collins

“On the small neutral ground of self-importance, the best men and the worst meet on the same terms.”

— Wilkie Collins

“… you are so much better off as a single woman – unless – unless you are very fond of your husband …”

— Wilkie Collins

She looked so irresistibly beautiful as she said those brave words that no man alive could have steel his heart against her.

— Wilkie Collins

This is the story of what a Woman's patience can endure, and what a Man's resolution can achieve.

— Wilkie Collins

“It is true that love soars higher than the other passions; but it can stoop lower as well.”

— Wilkie Collins

What lurking temptations to forbidden tenderness find their finding-places in a woman's dressing-gown, when she is alone in her room at night!

— Wilkie Collins

And earth was heaven a little the worse for wear. And heaven was earth, done up again to look like new.

— Wilkie Collins