in certain crises direct expression of sympathy is the least possible to those who most feel sympathy.

What a different result one gets by changing the metaphor!

Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit. Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

[It is easier] to quell emotion than to incur the consequences of venting it.

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.

Opposition may become sweet to a man when he has christened it persecution.

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.