The best part of a woman's love is worship; but it is hard to her to be sent away with her precious spikenard rejected, and her long tresses, too, that were let fall, ready to soothe the wearied feet.

I am open to conviction on all points except dinner and debts. I hold that the one must be eaten and the other paid.

Sir Joshua would have been glad to take her portrait; and he would have had an easier task than the historian at least in this, that he would not have had to represent the truth of change - only to give stability to one beautiful moment.

I protest against any absolute conclusion.

What a wretched lot of old shrivelled creatures we shall be by-and-by. Never mind - the uglier we get in the eyes of others, the lovelier we shall be to each other; that has always been my firm faith about friendship.

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

Can any man or woman choose duties? No more than they can choose their birthplace or their father and mother.