Wilkie Collins

“No woman can resist admiration and presents--especially presents, provided they happen to be just the thing she wants. He was sharp enough…

— Wilkie Collins

I used to attend scientific experiments when I was a girl at school. They invariably ended in an explosion. If Mr. Jennings…

— Wilkie Collins

“The grandest mountain prospect that the eye can range over is appointed to annihilation. The smallest human interest that the pure heart…

— Wilkie Collins

“I should never, perhaps, have heard even the name of the woman who has lived in all my thoughts, who has possessed…

— Wilkie Collins

“This is a miserable world", says the Sergeant. "Human life, Mr. Betteredge, is a sort of target --misfortune is always firing at…

— Wilkie Collins

Women can resist a man's love, a man's fame, a man's personal appearance, and a man's money, but they cannot resist a…

— Wilkie Collins

“Marian and I avoided all further reference to that other subject, which by her consent and mine, was not to be mentioned…

— Wilkie Collins

“I turned towards the garden when the door had closed on her. Miss Halcombe was standing with her hat in her hand,…

— Wilkie Collins

“You are not to take it, if you please, as the saying of an ignorant man, when I express my opinion that…

— Wilkie Collins

“Let the end come as it may, here I am ready to profit by it: here I am, facing both ways, with…

— Wilkie Collins

“When two members of a family or two intimate friends are separated, and one goes abroad and one remains at home, the…

— Wilkie Collins

“If the machinery of the Law could be depended on to fathom every case of suspicion, and to conduct every process of…

— Wilkie Collins

“Now, tell me, my dear, I said, what are you crying about? About the years that are gone, Mr. Betteredge," says Rosanna…

— Wilkie Collins

“I drove home, selected and marked my first series of readings, and drove back to Montagu Square, with a dozen works in…

— 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

“Whenever a woman tries to put you out of temper, turn the tables, and put HER out of temper instead. They are…

— Wilkie Collins

If I ever meet with the man who fulfills my ideal, I shall make it a condition of the marriage settlement, that…

— Wilkie Collins

The evening advanced. The shadows lengthened. The waters of the lake grew pitchy black. The gliding of the ghostly swans became rare…

— Wilkie Collins

“He has that quiet deference, that look of pleased, attentive interest, in listening to a woman, which, say what we may, we…

— Wilkie Collins

“It was cold and barren. It was no longer the view that I remembered. The sunshine of her presence was far from…

— Wilkie Collins

“You see I don’t think much of my own sex, Mr. Hartright—which will you have, tea or coffee?—no woman does think much…

— Wilkie Collins

“When a woman wants me to do anything (my daughter, or not, it doesn't matter), I always insist on knowing why. The…

— Wilkie Collins

“Perhaps you think you see a certain contradiction here? In that case, a word in your ear. Study your wife closely, for…

— Wilkie Collins