How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die. (22.3)
Margaret's beliefs are simple – we must all, as human beings, reach out to each other – and love each other. This, to her, is the only thing that can bring humanity together, and reconcile the warring sides of our desires (the physical and the intellectual).
Quote #8
How wide the gulf between Henry as he was and Henry as Helen thought he ought to be! And she herself--hovering as usual between the two, now accepting men as they are, now yearning with her sister for Truth. Love and Truth--their warfare seems eternal. Perhaps the whole visible world rests on it, and if they were one, life itself, like the spirits when Prospero was reconciled to his brother, might vanish into air, into thin air. (26.50)
This reflection begs us to wonder – how irreconcilable are Love and Truth? Is it really as impossible as it seems to both love someone and see them objectively?
Quote #9
She told herself that Mrs. Wilcox's wrong was her own. But she was not a bargain theorist. As she undressed, her anger, her regard for the dead, her desire for a scene, all grew weak. Henry must have it as he liked, for she loved him, and some day she would use her love to make him a better man. (28.14)
Margaret's love is enough to make her forgive Henry for his past wrongs, even through her mind tells her not to. Love, we see, is stronger than the intellect, even for the Schlegels.