My books don't seem to belong to me after I have once written them; and I find myself delivering opinions about them as if I had nothing to do with them.

In every parting there is an image of death.

Plainness has its peculiar temptations and vices quite as much as beauty.

Childhood has no forebodings; but then, it is soothed by no memories of outlived sorrow.

It is very hard to say the exact truth, even about your own immediate feelings – much harder than to say something fine about them which is not the exact truth.

Well, I aren't like a bird-clapper, forced to make a rattle when the wind blows on me. I can keep my own counsel when there's no good i' speaking.

You youngsters nowadays think you're to begin with living well and working easy; you've no notion of running afoot before you get on horseback.