The memory has as many moods as the temper, and shifts its scenery like a diorama.

I tell you there isn't a thing under the sun that needs to be done at all, but what a man can do better than a woman, unless it's bearing children, and they do that in a poor make-shift way; it had better ha been left to the men.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.

I have a knack of hoping, which is as good as an estate.

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

How can one ever do anything nobly Christian, living among people with such petty thoughts?

The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for us: we begin to see things again in their larger, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.