There was an exquisitely beautiful conception in my brain when I did this piece of work all alone from midnight until morning after the experience of a wonderful day. But I was not able to make the consummation anywhere nearly as beautiful as the inspiration. That, I suppose, is the cry of every heart struggling for self-expression.

It really seems as if failure and hardship make more of a human being of folks than success.

there was nothing in the whole world so dreadful as the power of riches wrongly used.

it takes the very wisest person there is to know when to talk, and when to keep still.

You cannot write on the heart of another what you do not feel yourself.

I do not believe there is any one study that can be taken up that will broaden the imagination, that will be the source from which will spring more deep thinking and sincere research than the study of astronomy.

Being dead was one thing, getting ready for a wedding another.