[To her host upon leaving a party:] Don't think it hasn't been charming, because it hasn't.

The ingrained idea that, because there is no king and they despise titles, the Americans are a free people is pathetically untrue. . . . There is a perpetual interference with personal liberty over there that would not be tolerated in England for a week.

Although I am not stupid, the mathematical side of my brain is like dumb notes upon a damaged piano.

I was born in the country of Hogg and Scott between the Yarrow and the Tweed, in the year 1864.

My sort of looks are of the kind that bore me when I see them on other people.

The power to love what is purely abstract is given to few.

Haunted from my early youth by the transitoriness and pathos of life, I was aware that it is not enough to say "I am doing no harm," I ought to be testing myself daily, and asking myself what I am really achieving.