“Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husks.”

— George MacDonald, The Marquis of Lossie (1877)

About George MacDonald

1824 – 1905

Scottish author and minister, known for fantasy novels and for the novel 'The Marquis of Lossie'.

“To receive honestly is the best thanks for a good thing.”

“A true friend is forever a friend.”

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”

“We live in a country where the people own the Government and not in a country where the Government owns the people.”

“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”

“There is nothing to life that has value, except the degree of power—assuming that life itself is the will to power.”