Pity that consequences are determined not by excuses but by actions!

Every year strips us of at least one vain expectation, and teaches us to reckon some solid good in its stead.

Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

And Dorothea..she had no dreams of being praised above other women. Feeling that there was always something better which she might have done if she had only been better and known better, her full nature spent itself in deeds which left no great name on the earth, but the effect of her being on those around her was incalculable. For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts and on all those Dorotheas who life faithfully their hidden lives and rest in unvisited tombs. Middlemarch

What do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other?

Explain! Tell a man to explain how he dropped into hell! Explain my preference! I never had a PREFERENCE for her, any more than I have a preference for breathing. No other woman exists by the side of her. I would rather touch her hand if it were dead, than I would touch any other woman's living.

I flutter all ways, and fly in none.