The universe is wider than our views of it.
In literature it is only the wild that attracts us.
Take Time by the forelock. It is also the safest part to take a serpent by.
To enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true enjoyment of it.
We can never safely exceed the actual facts in our narratives. Of pure invention, such as some suppose, there is no instance. To write a true work of fiction even is only to take leisure and liberty to describe some things more exactly as they are.
Homeliness is almost as great a merit in a book as in a house, if the reader would abide there. It is next to beauty, and a very high art.