Everything about her was warm and soft and scented; even the stains of her grief became her as raindrops do the beaten rose.

...though she had not had the strength to shake off the spell that bound her to him she had lost all spontaneity of feeling, and seemed to herself to be passively awaiting a fate she could not avert.

But marriage is one long sacrifice.... Chapter 21, Medora Manson speaking to Newland Archer

Beauty (was)a gift which, in the eyes of New York, justified every success, and excused a certain number of failings.

Overhead hung a summer sky furrowed with the rush of rockets; and from the east a late moon, pushing up beyond the lofty bend of the coast, sent across the bay a shaft of brightness which paled to ashes in the red glitter of the illuminated boats.

True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.

An unalterable and unquestioned law of the musical world required that the German text of French operas sung by Swedish artists should be translated into Italian for the clearer understanding of English-speaking audiences.