I shall be so glad if you will tell me what to read. I have been looking into all the books in the library at Offendene, but there is nothing readable. The leaves all stick together and smell musty. I wish I could write books to amuse myself, as you can! How delightful it must be to write books after one's own taste instead of reading other people's! Home-made books must be so nice.

He who rules must fully humor as much as he commands.

It is possible to have a strong self-love without any self-satisfaction, rather with a self-discontent which is the more intense because one's own little core of egoistic sensibility is a supreme care.

We have all our secret sins; and if we knew ourselves we should not judge each other harshly.

Love at its highest flood rushes beyond its object, and loses itself in the sense of divine mystery.

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.

No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.