There is only one failure in life possible, and that is not to be true to the best one knows.

If we need a true conception of the popular character to guide our sympathies rightly, we need it equally to check our theories, and direct us in their application.

O the anguish of the thought that we can never atone to our dead for the stinted affection we gave them.

... learning to love any one is like an increase of property, -- it increases care, and brings many new fears lest precious things should come to harm.

Men outlive their love, but they don’t outlive the consequences of their recklessness.

What should I do—how should I act now, this very day . . . What she would resolve to do that day did not yet seem quite clear, but something that she could achieve stirred her as with an approaching murmur which would soon gather distinctness.

A proud woman who has learned to submit carries all her pride to the reinforcement of her submission, and looks down with severe superiority on all feminine assumption as unbecoming.