If you deliver an opinion at all, it is mere stupidity not to do it with an air of conviction and well-founded knowledge. You make it your own in uttering it, and naturally get fond of it.

Do we not all agree to call rapid thought and noble impulse by the name of inspiration? After our subtlest analysis of the mental process, we must still say that our highest thoughts and our best deeds are all given to us.

Better a false belief than no belief at all.

The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.

It is easy to say how we love new friends, and what we think of them, but words can never trace out all the fibers that knit us to the old.

That farewell kiss which resembles greeting, that last glance of love which becomes the sharpest pang of sorrow.

I suppose it was that in courtship everything is regarded as provisional and preliminary, and the smallest sample of virtue or accomplishment is taken to guarantee delightful stores which the broad leisure of marriage will reveal. But the door-sill of marriage once crossed, expectation is concentrated on the present. Having once embarked on your marital voyage, it is impossible not to be aware that you make no way and that the sea is not within sight-that, in fact, you are exploring an enclosed basin.