There is one order of beauty which seems made to turn heads. It is a beauty like that of kittens, or very small downy ducks making gentle rippling noises with their soft bills, or babies just beginning to toddle.

I think I am quite wicked with roses. I like to gather them, and smell them till they have no scent left.

Here undoubtedly lies the chief poetic energy: - in the force of imagination that pierces or exalts the solid fact, instead of floating among cloud-pictures.

Hold up your head! You were not made for failure, you were made for victory. Go forward with a joyful confidence.

I suppose it was that in courtship everything is regarded as provisional and preliminary, and the smallest sample of virtue or accomplishment is taken to guarantee delightful stores which the broad leisure of marriage will reveal. But the door-sill of marriage once crossed, expectation is concentrated on the present. Having once embarked on your marital voyage, it is impossible not to be aware that you make no way and that the sea is not within sight-that, in fact, you are exploring an enclosed basin.

Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts—not to hurt others.

Few things hold the perception more thoroughly captive than anxiety about what we have got to say