I do not like new things of any kind, not even a new gown, far less a new acquaintance, therefore make as few as possible; one can but have one's heart and hands full, and mine are. I have love and work enough to last me the rest of my life.

We can sometimes love what we do not understand, but it is impossible completely to understand what we do not love.

Chill penury weighs down the heart itself; and though it sometimes be endured with calmness, it is but the calmness of despair.

All my experience of the world teaches me that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the safe side and the just side of a question is the generous side and the merciful side.

As what we call genius arises out of the disproportionate power and size of a certain faculty, so the great difficulty lies in harmonizing with it the rest of the character.

Occupation was one of the pleasures of paradise, and we cannot be happy without it.

You must never believe what the newspapers say. I stand aghast at the impudence of the lies they contain, things not only false in fact, but absolutely impossible.