My intellect is a little way upon the wrong side of that narrow boundary-line between sanity and insanity.

it is easy to starve, but it is difficult to stoop.

Self-assertion may deceive the ignorant for a time; but when the noise dies away, we cut open the drum, and find it was emptiness that made the music.

Phoebe Marks was a person who never lost her individuality. Silent and self-contained, she seemed to hold herself within herself, and take no colour from the outer world.

Amiability is the redeeming quality of fools.

Our virtues, as well as our vices, are often scourges for our own backs.

Life is such a very troublesome matter, when all is said and done, that it's as well even to take its blessings quietly.