... to work, to work hard, to see work steadily, and see it whole, was the way to be reputable. I think I always respected a goodblacksmith more than a lady of leisure.

Happiness must be cultivated. It is like character. It is not a thing to be safely let alone for a moment, or it will run to weeds.

A perfect marriage is like a pure heart ... those who have it are fit to see God.

It seems to me that life is always undoing for us something that we have just laboriously done.

Superior music is purity itself; it clears the air.

Who originated that most exquisite of inquisitions, the condolence system?

The distractions, the exhaustions, the savage noises, the demands of town life, are, for me, mortal enemies to thought, to sleep,and to study; its extremes of squalor and of splendor do not stimulate, but sadden me; certain phases of its society I profoundly value, but would sacrifice them to the heaven of country quiet, if I had to choose between.