A thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.

Before the Roman came to Rye or out to severn strode, / The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.

What we call emancipation is always and of necessity simply the free choice of the soul between one set of limitations and another.

And they that rule in England, in stately conclaves met, alas, alas for England they have no graves as yet.

Whatever the word "great" means, Dickens was what it means.

A man making the confession of any creed worth ten minutes' intelligent talk, is always a man who gains something and gives up something. So long as he does both he can create: for he is making an outline and a shape.

Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.