I have no courage to write much unless I am written to. I soon begin to think that there are plenty of other correspondents more interesting - so if you all want to hear from me you know the conditions.

Every year strips us of at least one vain expectation, and teaches us to reckon some solid good in its stead.

There's folks 'ud hold a sieve under the pump and expect to carry away the water.

... it is one thing to like defiance, and another thing to like its consequences.

O the anguish of the thought that we can never atone to our dead for the stinted affection we gave them.

A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.