But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.

A mother's yearning feels the presence of the cherished child even in the degraded man.

Childhood is only the beautiful and happy time in contemplation and retrospect: to the child it is full of deep sorrows, the meaning of which is unknown.

Receptiveness is a rare and massive power, like fortitude.

I don't want the world to give me anything for my books except money enough to save me from the temptation to write only for money.

Genius ... is necessarily intolerant of fetters.