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.

You must love your work and not always be looking over the edge of it wanting your play to begin.

People who live at a distance are naturally less faulty than those immediately under our own eyes.

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

Unwonted circumstances may make us all rather unlike ourselves: there are conditions under which the most majestic person is obliged to sneeze, and our emotions are liable to be acted on in the same incongruous manner.

I shall be so glad if you will tell me what to read. I have been looking into all the books in the library at Offendene, but there is nothing readable. The leaves all stick together and smell musty. I wish I could write books to amuse myself, as you can! How delightful it must be to write books after one's own taste instead of reading other people's! Home-made books must be so nice.

Our virtues are dearer to us the more we have had to suffer for them. It is the same with our children. All profound affection entertains a sacrifice. Our thoughts are often worse than we are, just as they are often better.