The Little Minister
“The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it. But the biographer sees the last chapter while he is still at the first, and I have only to write over with ink what Gavin has written in pencil.”– pp. 6-7
“At twenty-one a man is a musical instrument given to the other sex, but it is not as instruments learned at school, for when She sits down to it, she cannot tell what tune she is about to play. That is because she has no notion of what the instrument is capable.” — p 97
“We should be slower to think that the man at his worst is the real man, and certain that the better we are ourselves the less likely is he to be at his worst in our company.”– p. 109
“Love, it is said, is blind, but love is not blind. It is an extra eye, which shows us what is most worthy of regard. To see the best is to see most clearly, and it is the lover’s privilege.” — p. 143
“You saw how she kept her feet among her shalls and wills. Never trust a Scotch man or woman who does not come to grief among them.”– p. 167
“His reason had warned him to avoid the Egyptian, and his desire had consented to be dragged westward because they knew he had started too soon. When the proper time came they knocked reason on the head and carried him straight to Caddam. Here reason came to, and again began to state its case. Desires permitted him to halt, as if to argue the matter out, but were thus tolerant merely because from where he stood he could see Nanny’s doorway. When Babbie emerged from it reason seems to have made one final effort, for Gavin quickly took that side of a tree which is loved of squirrels at the approach of an enemy. He looked round the tree-trunk at her, and then reason discarded him.”– p. 217
“But for her presence, the minister’s efforts would have been equally futile. Though not strong, however, he had the national horror of being beaten before a spectator, and once at school he had won a fight by telling his big antagonist to come on until the boy was tired of pumelling him.”– p. 219
“…she had seen him do many things far more worthy of admiration without admiring them. This, indeed, is a sad truth, that we seldom give our love to what is worthiest in its object.”– p. 219
“…for she was her mother in miniature, with a tongue that ran like a pump after the pans are full, not for use but for the mere pleasure of spilling.”– p. 297
“Walter Lunny was a man who had to retrace his steps in telling a story if he tried short cuts, and so my custom was to wait patiently while he delved through the ploughed fields that always lay between him and his destination.”– p. 305 (152)
“You, who do not love that little congregation, would have said that they were waiting placidly. But probably so simple a woman as Meggy Rattray could have deceived you into believeing that because her eyes were downcast she did not notice who put the three-penny-bit in the plate…all the women at least were wondering. They knew better, however, than to bring their thoughts to their faces, and none sought to catch another’s eye.” — p. 170