Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.

Anything large enough for a wish to light upon, is large enough to hang a prayer upon.

God is the God of the animals in a far lovelier way, I suspect, than many of us dare to think, but he will not be the God of a man by making a good beast of him.

You must learn to be strong in the dark as well as in the day, else you will always be only half brave.

But I begin to think the chief difficulty in writing a book must be to keep out what does not belong to it.

What distressed me most - more even than my own folly - was the perplexing question - How can beauty and ugliness dwell so near? Even with her altered complexion and face of dislike; disenchanted of the belief that clung around her; known for a living, walking sepulcher, faithless, deluding, traitorous; I felt, notwithstanding all this, that she was beautiful. Upon this I pondered with undiminished perplexity.

To the dim and bewildered vision of humanity, God's care is more evident in some instances than in others; and upon such instances men seize, and call them providences. It is well that they can; but it would be gloriously better if they could believe that the whole matter is one grand providence.