A novel should be as like life as a painting, but not as like life as a piece of waxwork.

I have had a great misfortune; my dear old dog is dead.

Does it not appear to you versatility is the true and rare characteristic of that rare thing called genius-versatility and playfulness? In my mind they are both essential.

I do not think very highly of Madame D'Arblay's books. The style is so strutting. She does so stalk about on Dr. Johnson's old stilts.

I 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.

... they know little of the passions who seek to argue with that most intractable of them all, the fear that is born of love.

Trees and children are, of all living things, those whose growth soonest makes one feel one's age.