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Gabriel Oak: I'm not going to tell stories just to please you. You can be sure of that.
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William Boldwood: I want... very much to protect you. For the rest of your life.
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Sergeant Troy: You've never seen *you* through a man's eyes. It's like not being able to think.
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Bathsheba Everdene: Mr Oak, I don't want a husband. I'd hate to be some man's property. I shouldn't mind being a bride at a wedding if I could be one without getting a husband!
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Bathsheba Everdene: It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in a language chiefly made by men to express theirs.
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Gabriel Oak: Leading on a man you do not care for is beneath you
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Liddy: What a luxury to have a choice. "Kiss my foot, sir, my face is for mouths of consequence."
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Sergeant Troy: This woman, dead as she is, is more to me than you ever were, or are, or can be. You are nothing to me now. Nothing.
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[first lines]
Bathsheba Everdene: [narrating] "Bathsheba Everdene." "Bathsheba." The name has always sounded strange to me. I don't like to hear it said out loud. My parents died when I was very young, so there's no one to ask where it came from. I've grown accustomed to being on my own. Some say even too accustomed. Too independent.
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Bathsheba Everdene: From now on, you have a mistress, not a master. I don't yet know my talents in farming, but I shall do my best. Don't suppose, because I'm a woman, I don't know the difference between bad goings-on and good. I shall be up before you're awake. I shall be a-field before you are up. It is my intention to astonish you all. Back to work, please.
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Liddy: [about the rich bachelor] It's said, when he was young, his sweetheart jilted him.
Bathsheba Everdene: People always say that. Women don't jilt men. Men jilt us.
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Sergeant Troy: [after announcing their engagement] It will not rain tonight. My wife forbids it.
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William Boldwood: You must at least admire my persistence.
Bathsheba Everdene: I do.
William Boldwood: And like me?
Bathsheba Everdene: Yes.
William Boldwood: And respect me?
Bathsheba Everdene: Yes. Very much.
William Boldwood: Which is it? Like or respect?
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[last lines]
Bathsheba Everdene: Wasn't I your first sweetheart? Weren't you mine? And now I'd have to go on without you.
Gabriel Oak: If I knew... If I knew that you would let me love you and marry you...
Bathsheba Everdene: But you will never know.
Gabriel Oak: Why not?
Bathsheba Everdene: Because you never ask!
Gabriel Oak: Would you say no again?
Bathsheba Everdene: I don't know. Probably. So why don't you? Ask me. Ask me. Ask me, Gabriel.
Gabriel Oak: [lunges and kisses her]
Far from the Madding Crowd Quotes
Extended Reading
