In travelling I shape myself betimes to idleness And take fools' pleasure

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

I used to come from the village with all that dirt and coarse ugliness like a pain within me, and the simpering pictures in the drawing-room seemed to me like a wicked attempt to find delight in what is false, while we don't mind how hard the truth is for the neighbors outside our walls. I think we have no right to come forward and urge wider changes for good, until we have tried to alter the evils which lie under our own hands.

In the ages since Adam's marriage, it has been good for some men to be alone, and for some women also.

What is your religion? I mean-not what you know about religion but the belief that helps you most?

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

... one's own faults are always a heavy chain to drag through life and one can't help groaning under the weight now and then.