Remarks by William Brighty Rands | V2Melody Quotations

“I can remember having silent dreams of waking pleasure on fine summer days, when I felt the joy of watching other creatures do just as they pleased.”

Cherishing the simple happiness of observing free and unforced natural life · Lilliput Lectures

“This sort of thing did me much harm, forming as it did part of the process by which I was perpetually made to feel alone — a feeling which took possession of me at an incredibly early date.”

Reflecting on how harsh early punishments fostered a lasting sense of isolation · Autobiography of an Irreconcilable (memoirs)

“An irreconcilable is simply an uncommitted person; one who not only makes no show of acquiescence in these matters, but who formally holds aloof from everything which could fairly be held to commit him to any such acquiescence.”

Defining independence of mind as refusal to endorse methods that fail shared ideals · Autobiography of an Irreconcilable (memoirs)

“I learnt by my eyes, picking out words as I picked out cats from dogs, and trees from lamp-posts.”

Describing a visual, comparative method of early reading that later aided language learning · Autobiography of an Irreconcilable (memoirs)

“Ugly things made me ache all over — a public house, for instance, dirt, a black-eye, a butcher's shop — indeed, almost everything disgusted me, except skies, trees, women and children, and books.”

Revealing an intense aesthetic sensitivity and idealism from early childhood · Autobiography of an Irreconcilable (memoirs)

“To torture a fly, to tease a pet, but still more, to tease a playmate, to try to make another creature give up a part of its freedom, just to please our whims (without giving in return something it is glad to receive) is an offence in the eyes of God.”

Condemning any cruelty that restricts the liberty of living things for mere amusement · Lilliput Lectures

“I was taught by my parents that, if I was struck on the right cheek, I should turn the left, and that I was to die rather than smite again. I never struck a blow and never received one, and I used to believe firmly that an angel from heaven would help me if I needed it.”

Expressing a lifelong commitment to non-violence rooted in parental teaching and childhood faith · Lilliput Lectures

“I know I am clever, but I was born so.”

Disclaiming credit for natural facility while rejecting praise that shames others · Autobiography of an Irreconcilable (memoirs)

“I was a born worshipper, with a strong tendency to mysticism of a kind that turned naturally to the One true Object of worship, and found pleasure in thinking of His presence anywhere and everywhere as a fact.”

Reflecting an innate sense of the divine rather than one imposed by upbringing · Autobiography of an Irreconcilable (memoirs)

“Some of the best things said about it and what it foretells are little better than self-conscious talk to fill up time.”

A wry warning against criticism that sounds impressive without yet understanding a new art form · Essay, The New Fiction, as Henry Holbeach, 1880

“But the day is yet far off when the historian shall jostle the novelist out of his place.”

Defending imaginative literature against claims that history might supersede fiction · Essay, The New Fiction, as Henry Holbeach, 1880

“There are great changes in the air, and in these the novel will play a large and increasing part.”

Anticipating the growing cultural importance of the novel amid rapid social change · Essay, The New Fiction, as Henry Holbeach, 1880

“In fact, the New Fiction is a product for which the canons were not ready.”

Recognising that new literary forms can develop faster than the critical standards used to judge them · Essay, The New Fiction, as Henry Holbeach, 1880

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