What business has an old bachelor like that to marry?' said Sir James. 'He has one foot in the grave.' 'He means to draw it out again, I suppose.

It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.

I had some ambition. I meant everything to be different with me. I thought I had more strength and mastery. But the most terrible obstacles are such as nobody can see except oneself.

... when one's outward lot is perfect, the sense of inward imperfection is the more pressing.

Do we not all agree to call rapid thought and noble impulse by the name of inspiration? After our subtlest analysis of the mental process, we must still say that our highest thoughts and our best deeds are all given to us.

What loneliness is more lonely than distrust?

Man may content himself with the applause of the world and the homage paid to his intellect, but woman's heart has holier idols.