I have read that the secret of gallantry is to accept the pleasures of life leisurely, and its inconveniences with a shrug; as well as that, among other requisites, the gallant person will always consider the world with a smile of toleration, and his own doings with a smile of honest amusement, and Heaven with a smile which is not distrustful — being thoroughly persuaded that God is kindlier than the genteel would regard as rational.

There is no gift more great than love.

I ask of literature precisely those things of which I feel the lack in my own life.

No lady is ever a gentleman.

While it is well enough to leave footprints on the sands of time, it is even more important to make sure they point in a commendable direction.

I was born, I think, with the desire to make beautiful books — brave books that would preserve the glories of the Dream untarnished, and would re-create them for battered people, and re-awaken joy and magnanimity.

In religious matters a traveller loses nothing by civility.