Absurdity is the one thing love can't stand; it can overlook anything else, -- coldness, or weakness, or viciousness, -- but just be ridiculous and that's the end of it!

If you are kind to an enemy, you cannot hate him.

A sneer is like a flame; it may occasionally be curative because it cauterizes, but it leaves a bitter scar.

Twenty-five years ago, Christmas was not the burden that it is now; there was less haggling and weighing, less quid pro quo, less fatigue of body, less weariness of soul; and, most of all, there was less loading up with trash.

moral vanity is the snare of good people.

as I get older there is nothing more constantly astonishing to me than the goodness of the Bad; - unless it is the badness of the Good.

A letter is a risky thing; the writer gambles on the reader's frame of mind.