For the greatest fool and rascal in creation there is yet a worse condition; and that is, not to know it, but to think himself a respectable man.

Now and then, when I look round on my books, they seem to waver as if a wind rippled their solid mass, and another world were about to break through.

Her heart - like every heart, if only its fallen sides were cleared away - was an inexhaustible fountain of love: she loved everything she saw.

A man must learn to love his children, not because they are his, but because they are children, else his love will be scarcely a better thing at last than the party-spirit of the faithful politician.

I write, not for children,but for the child-like, whether they be of five, or fifty, or seventy-five.

Many a thief is a better man than many a clergyman, and miles nearer to the gate of the kingdom.

Where did you get your eyes so blue? Out of the sky as I came through.