Father and Son: A Study of Two Temperaments

“Let it be admitted at once, mournful as the admission is, that every instinct in his intelligence went out at first to greet the new light. It had hardly done so, when a recollection of the opening chapter of 'Genesis' checked it at the outset.””

— Edmund Gosse

“I soon discovered that they were absorbed in a silly kind of amorous correspondence with the girls of a neighbouring academy, but " what were all such toys to me?””

— Edmund Gosse

“I was much affected by the internal troubles of the Punch family; I thought that with a little more tact on the part of Mrs. Punch and some restraint held over a temper, naturally violent, by Mr. Punch, a great deal of this sad misunderstanding might have been prevented.””

— Edmund Gosse

“Either he must cease to think for himself; or his individualism must be instantly confirmed, and the necessity of religious independence must be emphasized.””

— Edmund Gosse

“You were thus sailing down the rapid tide of time towards Eternity, without a single authoritative guide (having cast your chart overboard), except what you might fashion and forge on your own anvil,”

— Edmund Gosse

“It encourages a stern and ignorant spirit of condemnation; it throws altogether out of gear the healthy movement of the conscience; it invents virtues which are sterile and cruel; it invents sins which are no sins at all, but which darken the heaven of innocent joy with futile clouds of remorse.””

— Edmund Gosse

“what a charming companion, what a delightful parent, what a courteous and engaging friend my Father would have been, and would pre-eminently have been to me, if it had not been for this stringent piety which ruined it all.””

— Edmund Gosse

“He would calculate, by reference to prophecies in the Old and New Testament, the exact date of this event; the date would pass, without the expected Advent, and he would be more than disappointed,”

— Edmund Gosse

“Claudite jam rivos, pueri: Sat prata biberunt.””

— Edmund Gosse