to my thinking, it is more pitiable to bore than to be bored.

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

I shall be so glad if you will tell me what to read. I have been looking into all the books in the library at Offendene, but there is nothing readable. The leaves all stick together and smell musty. I wish I could write books to amuse myself, as you can! How delightful it must be to write books after one's own taste instead of reading other people's! Home-made books must be so nice.

I love words; they are the quoits, the bows, the staves that furnish the gymnasium of the mind.

A man falling into dark waters seeks a momentary footing even on sliding stones.

... it is one of the gains of advancing age that the good of young creatures becomes a more definite intense joy to us. With that renunciation for ourselves which age inevitably brings, we get more freedom of soul to enter into the life of others; what we can never learn they will know, and the gladness which is a departed sunlight to us is rising with the strength of morning to them.

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.