In the first moments when we come away from the presence of death, every other relation to the living is merged, to our feeling, in the great relation of a common nature and a common destiny.

What destroys us most effectively is not a malign fate but our own capacity for self-deception and for degrading our own best self.

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!

College mostly makes people like bladders-just good for nothing but t'hold the stuff as is poured into 'em.

It is possible to have a strong self-love without any self-satisfaction, rather with a self-discontent which is the more intense because one's own little core of egoistic sensibility is a supreme care.

It is pleasant to have a kind word now and then when one is not near enough to have a kind glance or a hearty shake by the hand.

If Art does not enlarge men's sympathies, it does nothing morally.