Mighty is the force of motherhood! It transforms all things by its vital heat.

It is a sad weakness in us, after all, that the thought of a man's death hallows him anew to us; as if life were not sacred too.

Alas! the scientific conscience had got into the debasing company of money obligation and selfish respects.

The desire to conquer is itself a sort of subjection.

Susceptible persons are more affected by a change of tone that by unexpected words.

If a woman's young and pretty, I think you can see her good looks all the better for her being plainly dressed.

Some discouragement, some faintness of heart at the new real future which replaces the imaginary, is not unusual, and we do not expect people to be deeply moved by what is not unusual. That element of tragedy which lies in the very fact of frequency has not yet wrought itself into the coarse emotion of mankind, and perhaps our frames could hardly bear much of it. If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence.