I would confide to you perhaps my secret profession of faith - which is ... which is ... that let us say and do what we please and can ... there is a natural inferiority of mind in women - of the intellect ... not by any means, of the moral nature - and that the history of Art and of genius testifies to this fact openly.

Books, books, books! I had found the secret of a garret room Piled high with cases in my father’s name; Piled high, packed large,--where, creeping in and out Among the giant fossils of my past, Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there At this or that box, pulling through the gap, In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy, The first book first. And how I felt it beat Under my pillow, in the morning’s dark, An hour before the sun would let me read! My books!

The devil's most devilish when respectable.

There are nettles everywhere, but smooth, green grasses are more common still; the blue of heaven is larger than the cloud.

Souls are dangerous things to carry straight through all the spilt saltpetre of this world.

Men get opinions as boys learn to spell by reiteration chiefly.

The flower-girl's prayer to buy roses and pinks, held out in the smoke, like stars by day.