It would be difficult to determine whether the age is growing better or worse; for I think our plays are growing like sermons, and our sermons like plays.

So fades a summer cloud away; So sinks the gale when storms are o'er; So gently shuts the eye of day; So dies a wave along the shore.

It is to hope, though hope were lost.

The best way for women to acquire knowledge is from conversation with a father, a brother, or a friend, in the way of family intercourse and easy conversation, and by such a course of reading as they may recommend.

if an author would have us feel a strong degree of compassion, his characters must not be too perfect.

The world has little to bestow Where two fond hearts in equal love are joined.

Child of mortality, whence comest thou? Why is thy countenance sad, and why are thine eyes red with weeping?