Bright was the summer of 1296. The war which had desolated Scotland was then at an end.

Be shocking, be daring, be bold, be passionate.

Any base heart can devise means of vileness, and affix the ugly shapings of its own fancy to the actions of those around him; but it requires loftiness of mind, and the heaven-born spirit of virtue, to imagine greatness where it is not, and to deck the sordid objects of nature in the beautiful robes of loveliness and light.

Yet happiness isn't something you chase, it's something you are. It's something you think, it's something you believe.

Goodness is equally hateful to the wicked, as vice is to the virtuous.

In the career of female fame, there are few prizes to tie obtained which can vie with the obscure state of a beloved wife or a happy mother.

Happiness is a sunbeam which may pass through a thousand bosoms without losing a particle of its original ray; nay, when it strikes on a kindred heart, like the converged light on a mirror, it reflects itself with redoubled brightness. It is not perfected till it is shared.