The tread Of coming footsteps cheats the midnight watcher Who holds her heart and waits to hear them pause, And hears them never pause, but pass and die.

... we all know the wag's definition of a philanthropist: a man whose charity increases directly as the square of the distance.

Receptiveness is a rare and massive power, like fortitude.

Miserliness is a capital quality to run in families; it's the safe side for madness to dip on.

Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another

A prig is a fellow who is always making you a present of his opinions.

All writing seems to me worse in the state of proof than in any other form. In manuscript one's own wisdom is rather remarkable to one, but in proof it has the effect of one's private furniture repeated in the shop windows. And then there is the sense that the worst errors will go to press unnoticed!