I have no ambition to surprise my reader. Castles with unknown passages are not compatible with my homely muse.

A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.

But the hobbledehoy, though he blushes when women address him, and is uneasy even when he is near them, though he is not master ofhis limbs in a ball-room, and is hardly master of his tongue at any time, is the most eloquent of beings, and especially eloquent among beautiful women.

The habit of reading is the only one I know in which there is no alloy. It lasts when all other pleasures fade.

A novelist's characters must be with him as he lies down to sleep, and as he wakes from his dreams. He must learn to hate them and to love them.

Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who has a low opinion of himself.

The mind of the thinker and the student is driven to admit, though it be awe-struck by apparent injustice, that this inequality is the work of God. Make all men equal to-day, and God has so created them that they shall be all unequal to-morrow.