[On Elizabeth Barrett Browning:] ... for finish, and melody of versification, there is nothing approaching to Miss Barrett in this day, or in any other - also for diction. Her words paint.
Mary Russell MitfordI detest so much ... those persons, who insist upon telling you everything - who labor every point, as the lawyers say, as if they thought all excellence consisted in length.
Mary Russell MitfordI place flowers in the very first rank of simple pleasures; and I have no very good opinion of the hard worldly people who take no delight in them.
Mary Russell MitfordWell, great authors are great people - but I believe that they are best seen at a distance.
Mary Russell MitfordBuonaparte is certainly writing, or rather dictating, his memoirs. He walks backwards and forwards with his hands behind him, and dictates so fast that two or three of his suite are obliged to be in attendance, that the one may take down one-half of a sentence, and another the rest; they then literally compare notes, and put the disjointed legs and wings and heads of periods together. This is writing a book as he fought a battle.
Mary Russell Mitford