The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.

Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.

There is so much to read and the days are so short! I get more hungry for knowledge every day, and less able to satisfy my hunger.

I think any hardship is better than pretending to do what one is paid for, and never really doing it.

No great deed is done by falterers who ask for certainty.

Life is very difficult. It seems right to me sometimes that we should follow our strongest feelings; but then such feelings continually come across the ties that all our former life has made for us,--the ties that have made others dependent on us,--and would cut them in two.

... indefinite visions of ambition are weak against the ease of doing what is habitual or beguilingly agreeable.