Quotes from Sons and Lovers

12 notable lines from D.H. Lawrence · 1913

And I never shall meet the right woman while you live.

Paul Morel, to his mother (Ch. 11, 'The Test on Miriam')

  1. She wants to absorb him. She wants to draw him out and absorb him till there is nothing left of him, even for himself. He will never be a man on his own feet—she will suck him up.

    Mrs. Morel, of Miriam (Ch. 7, 'Lad-and-Girl Love')

  2. The mother and son walked down Station Street, feeling the excitement of lovers having an adventure together.

    Narration, of Paul and Mrs. Morel (Ch. 5, 'Paul Launches into Life')

  3. And I've never—you know, Paul—I've never had a husband—not really—

    Mrs. Morel, to Paul (Ch. 8, 'Strife in Love')

  4. But no, he would not give in. Turning sharply, he walked towards the city's gold phosphorescence. His fists were shut, his mouth set fast. He would not take that direction, to the darkness, to follow her. He walked towards the faintly humming, glowing town, quickly.

    Closing lines, Paul after his mother's death (Ch. 15, 'Derelict')

  5. You're always begging things to love you, as if you were a beggar for love. Even the flowers, you have to fawn on them—

    Paul Morel, to Miriam (Ch. 9, 'Defeat of Miriam')

  6. Damn your happiness! So long as life's full, it doesn't matter whether it's happy or not. I'm afraid your happiness would bore me.

    Paul Morel, to his mother (Ch. 9, 'Defeat of Miriam')

  7. They wanted genuine intimacy, but they could not get even normally near to anyone, because they scorned to take the first steps, they scorned the triviality which forms common human intercourse.

    Narration, of the Leivers family (Ch. 6, 'Death in the Family')

  8. He always ran away from the battle with himself. Even in his own heart's privacy, he excused himself, saying, "If she hadn't said so-and-so, it would never have happened. She asked for what she's got."

    Narration, of Walter Morel (Ch. 2, 'The Birth of Paul, and Another Battle')

  9. When love enters, the whole spiritual constitution of a man changes, is filled with the Holy Ghost, and almost his form is altered.

    The clergyman Mr. Heaton, on the marriage at Cana (Ch. 1, 'The Early Married Life of the Morels')

  10. That's how women are with me. They want me like mad, but they don't want to belong to me.

    Paul Morel (Ch. 14, 'The Release')

  11. Night, in which everything was lost, went reaching out, beyond stars and sun. Stars and sun, a few bright grains, went spinning round for terror, and holding each other in embrace, there in a darkness that outpassed them all, and left them tiny and daunted.

    Narration, Paul in his grief (Ch. 15, 'Derelict')