The floods of nonsense printed in the form of critical opinions seem to me a chief curse of the times, a chief obstacle to true culture.

He had the superficial kindness of a good-humored, self-satisfied nature, that fears no rivalry, and has encountered no contrarieties.

God, immortality, duty - how inconceivable the first, how unbelievable the second, how peremptory and absolute the third.

The bow always strung ... will not do.

I couldn't live in peace if I put the shadow of a willful sin between myself and God.

The mother's love is at first an absorbing delight, blunting all other sensibilities; it is an expansion of the animal existence.

The vainest woman is never thoroughly conscious of her beauty till she is loved by the man who sets her own passion vibrating in return.