Art without life is a poor affair.

...he had long decided that abundant laughter should be the embellishment of the remainder of his days.

No, no—there are depths, depths! The more I go over it, the more I see in it, and the more I see in it, the more I fear. I don’t know what I don’t see—what I don’t fear!

Excellence does not require perfection.

It had been agreed between them that lighted candles at wayside inns, in strange countries amid mountain scenery, gave the evening meal a peculiar poetry.

I mean that everything this afternoon has been too beautiful, and that perhaps everything together will never be so right again. I'm very glad therefore you've been a part of it.

We trust to novels to train us in the practice of great indignations and great generosity.