I cannot rest, I must draw, however poor the result, and when I have a bad time come over me it is a stronger desire than ever.

I hold that a strongly marked personality can influence descendants for generations.

I do so hate finishing books. I would like to go on with them for years.

What heaven can be more real than to retain the spirit-world of childhood?

For quiet, solitary and observant children create their own world and live in it, nourishing their imaginations on the material at hand.

Sunday, January 27, 1884. -- There was another story in the paper a week or so since. A gentleman had a favourite cat whom he taught to sit at the dinner table where it behaved very well. He was in the habit of putting any scraps he left onto the cat's plate. One day puss did not take his place punctually, but presently appeared with two mice, one of which it placed on its master's plate, the other on its own.

The shorter and the plainer the better.