Is it not rather what we expect in men, that they should have numerous strands of experience lying side by side and never compare them with each other?

One's self-satisfaction is an untaxed kind of property which it is very unpleasant to find deprecated.

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

One must be poor to know the luxury of giving!

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.

We want people to feel with us more than to act for us.

That's what a man wants in a wife, mostly; he wants to make sure one fool tells him he's wise.