Only those who know the supremacy of the intellectual life──the life which has a seed of ennobling thought and purpose within──can understand the grief of one who falls from that serene activity into the absorbing soul-wasting struggle with worldly annoyances.

Joy and sorrow are both my perpetual companions, but the joy is called Past and the sorrow Present.

We could never have loved the earth so well if we had had no childhood in it.

No man can be wise on an empty stomach.

When one is five-and-twenty, one has not chalk-stones at one's finger-ends that the touch of a handsome girl should be entirely indifferent.

We have all got to exert ourselves a little to keep sane, and call things by the same names as other people call them by.

A supreme love, a motive that gives a sublime rhythm to a woman's life, and exalts habit into partnership with the soul's highest needs, is not to be had where and how she wills.