Memory has many conveniences, and, among others, that of foreseeing things as they have afterwards happened.

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

I have no parting sigh to give, so take my parting smile.

I do not think that life has a suspense more sickening than that of expecting a letter which does not come.

There is a large stock on hand; but somehow or other, nobody's experience ever suits us but our own.

All beginnings are very troublesome things.

I cannot love evergreens - they are the misanthropes of nature. To them the spring brings no promise, the autumn no decline; they are cut off from the sweetest of all ties with their kind - sympathy. ... I will have no evergreens in my garden; when the inevitable winter comes, every beloved plant and favorite tree shall drop together - no solitary fir left to triumph over the companionship of decay.