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.

It is better sometimes not to follow great reformers of abuses beyond the threshold of their homes.

All honour and reverence to the divine beauty of form! Let us cultivate it to the utmost in men, women and children -- in our gardens and in our houses. But let us love that other beauty too, which lies in no secret of proportion but in the secret of deep human sympathy.

For character too is a process and an unfolding. . . among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful. . . .

Much of our waking experience is but a dream in the daylight.

I suppose it was that in courtship everything is regarded as provisional and preliminary, and the smallest sample of virtue or accomplishment is taken to guarantee delightful stores which the broad leisure of marriage will reveal. But the door-sill of marriage once crossed, expectation is concentrated on the present. Having once embarked on your marital voyage, it is impossible not to be aware that you make no way and that the sea is not within sight-that, in fact, you are exploring an enclosed basin.

Hostesses who entertain much must make up their parties as ministers make up their cabinets, on grounds other than personal liking.