Quotes by Wilkie Collins

“Silence is safe.””

“Let the music speak to us of tonight, in a happier language than our own.””

“I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of work of fiction should be to tell a story.””

“Nothing in this world is hidden forever. The gold which has lain for centuries unsuspected in the ground, reveals itself one day on the surface. Sand turns traitor, and betrays the footstep that has passed over it; water gives back to the tell-tale surface the body that has been drowned. Fire itself leaves the confession, in ashes, of the substance consumed in it. Hate breaks its prison-secrecy in the thoughts, through the doorway of the eyes; and Love finds the Judas who betrays it by a kiss. Look where we will, the inevitable law of revelation is one of the laws of nature: the lasting preservation of a secret is a miracle which the world has never yet seen.””

“Some of us rush through life and some of us saunter through life. Mrs. Vesey sat through life.””

“Your tears come easy, when you're young, and beginning the world. Your tears come easy, when you're old, and leaving it. I burst out crying.””

“We had our breakfasts--whatever happens in a house, robbery or murder, it doesn't matter, you must have your breakfast.””

“I am thinking,’ he remarked quietly, ’whether I shall add to the disorder in this room, by scattering your brains about the fireplace.””

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

“The fool's crime is the crime that is found out and the wise man's crime is the crime that is not found out.””

“I say what other people only think, and when all the rest of the world is in a conspiracy to accept the mask for the true face, mine is the rash hand that tears off the plump pasteboard, and shows the bare bones beneath.””