As to happiness in this life it is hardly compatible with that diminished respect which ever attends the relinquishing of labour.

To have her meals, and her daily walk, and her fill of novels, and to be left alone, was all that she asked of the gods.

Of Dickens' style it is impossible to speak in praise. It is jerky, ungrammatical, and created by himself in defiance of rules... No young novelist should ever dare to imitate the style of Dickens.

The law is a great thing,--because men are poor and weak, and bad. And it is great, because where it exists in its strength, no tyrant can be above it. But between you and me there should be no mention of law as the guide of conduct. Speak to me of honour, and of duty, and of nobility; and tell me what they require of you.

When a man is ill nothing is so important to him as his own illness.

If we wish ourselves to be high, we should treat that which is over us as high.

Till we can become divine, we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower.