“Creation and preservation don't do well together”

The expression “Creation and preservation don't do well together” is Sergeant Troy’s argument for remaking old buildings rather than respecting their inherited form. Spoken while he surveys the interior of Weatherbury Great Barn, it turns a practical preference for modernization into a general principle—and reveals the confidence with which he would impose his taste on his new surroundings.

Form and Meaning

Troy introduces the maxim while discussing the old wainscoted walls and the possibility of clearing away the oak or papering the room. He invokes a philosopher who had argued that earlier builders did not defer to their predecessors: they pulled down and altered existing work as they saw fit. Troy then draws the conclusion that creation and preservation are incompatible, adding that “a million of antiquarians can't invent a style.” The broad opposition gives his aesthetic preference the force of a rule: preserving inherited forms may conserve them, but, in his account, it cannot produce something new.

The Saying in Context

The maxim is part of Troy’s proposal to make the old house more modern so that its occupants may be cheerful there. Gabriel Oak disagrees, calling alteration a pity, while Troy treats the existing interior as material to be improved. His appeal to creative precedent lets him cast renovation not as mere dislike of old furnishings but as an active, historically authorized choice. The exchange establishes a contrast between Oak’s respect for the house’s existing character and Troy’s readiness to replace it.

Character and Narrative Significance

Troy’s aphorism is both an aesthetic argument and a display of self-assurance. He speaks confidently about redesigning the place even as the circumstances of his marriage remain unsettled in Gabriel’s mind. The maxim therefore characterizes Troy’s inclination to treat an existing order as something that may be altered to suit his preferences; the scene does not, however, establish that the renovation he proposes is carried out.