# Quote — Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native

> In fact, precisely at this transitional point of its nightly roll into darkness the great and particular glory of the Egdon waste began, and nobody could be said to understand the heath who had not been there at such a time. It could best be felt when it could not clearly be seen, its complete effect and explanation lying in this and the succeeding hours before the next dawn; then, and only then, did it tell its true tale.

- Author: [Thomas Hardy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy.md)
- Book: [The Return of the Native](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/the-return-of-the-native.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Hardy#The_Return_of_the_Native_(1878)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/the-return-of-the-native/in-fact-precisely

## More from this book

> Human beings, in their generous endeavour to construct a hypothesis that shall not degrade a First Cause, have always hesitated to conceive a dominant power of lower moral quality than their own; and, even while they sit down and weep by the waters of Babylon, invent excuses for the oppression which prompts their tears.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/the-return-of-the-native/human-beings-in-their.md)

> How bewitched I was! How could there be any good in a woman that everybody spoke ill of?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/the-return-of-the-native/how-bewitched-i-was.md)

> A well proportioned mind is one which shows no particular bias; one of which we may safely say that it will never cause its owner to be confined as a madman, tortured as a heretic, or crucified as a blasphemer. Also, on the other hand, that it will never cause him to be applauded as a prophet, revered as a priest, or exalted as a king. Its usual blessings are happiness and mediocrity.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/the-return-of-the-native/a-well-proportioned.md)