charity is a calm, severe duty; it must be intellectual, to be advantageous. It is a strange mistake that it should ever be considered a merit; its fulfillment is only what we owe to each other, and is a debt never paid to its full extent.

How disappointment tracks the steps of hope.

The truth is, we never make for others the allowance we make for ourselves; and we should deny even our own words, could we hear them spoken by another.

Farewell's a bitter word to say.

Society is like a large piece of frozen water; and skating well is the great art of social life.

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

We might have been - these are but common words, and yet they make the sum of life's bewailing.