All beginnings are very troublesome things.

it is a curious fact, but one which all experience owns, that people do not desire so much to appear better, as to appear different from what they really are.

English people ... never speak, excepting in cases of fire or murder, unless they are introduced.

... many a heart is caught in the rebound ... Pride may be soothed by the ready devotion of another; vanity may be excited the more keenly by recent mortification.

Youth is a season that has no repose.

I hate the word 'ought' - it always implies something dull, cold, and commonplace. The 'ought nots' of life are its pleasantest things.

Experience teaches, it is true; but she never teaches in time.