Death was not to be a leap: it was to be a long descent under thickening shadows.

Fine old Christmas, with the snowy hair and ruddy face, had done his duty that year in the noblest fashion, and had set off his rich gifts of warmth and color with all the heightening contrast of frost and snow.

The beginning of compunction is the beginning of a new life.

I don't mind how many letters I receive from one who interests me as much as you do. The receptive part of correspondence I can carry on with much alacrity. It is writing answers that I groan over.

Men can do nothing without the make-believe of a beginning.

To know intense joy without a strong bodily frame, one must have an enthusiastic soul.

No anguish I have had to bear on your account has been too heavy a price to pay for the new life into which I have entered in loving you.