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Quote#Poetry

To dwell on a heath without studying its meanings was like wedding a…

Quote byThomas Hardy · 1840–1928

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Return of the Native (1878), Bk. I, ch. 7.

English (original)

To dwell on a heath without studying its meanings was like wedding a foreigner without learning his tongue. The subtle beauties of the heath were lost to Eustacia; she only caught its vapours. An environment which would have made a contented woman a poet, a suffering woman a devotee, a pious woman a psalmist, even a giddy woman thoughtful, made a rebellious woman saturnine.

— Thomas Hardy

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