'Character," says Novalis, in one of his questionable aphorisms - character is destiny'.

I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offence.

What is better than to love and live with the loved? -- But that must sometimes bring us to live with the dead; and this too turns at last into a very tranquil and sweet tie, safe from change and injury.

The human soul is hospitable, and will entertain conflicting sentiments and contradictory opinions with much impartiality.

For character too is a process and an unfoldingamong our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protruberent there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?

Character is not cut in marble - it is not something solid and unalterable. It is something living and changing, and may become diseased as our bodies do.

Human experience is usually paradoxical.