So deeply inherent is it in this life of ours that men have to suffer for each other's sins, so inevitably diffusive is human suffering, that even justice makes its victims, and we can conceive no retribution that does not spread beyond its mark in pulsations of unmerited pain.

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.

I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved. I am not sure that you are of the same mind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of light and speech, and I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear.

We must find our duties in what comes to us, not in what might have been.

To most mortals there is a stupidity which is unendurable and a stupidity which is altogether acceptable - else, indeed, what would become of social bonds?

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

That's what a man wants in a wife, mostly; he wants to make sure one fool tells him he's wise.