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

She was the prettiest, silliest, most affected, husband-hunting butterfly ever.

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

Enthusiasm is very catching, especially when it is very eloquent.

In our present high state of civilization, people are so much alike, that anything at all odd comes on one with the freshness and character of an antique coin among smooth shillings.

That bad letters of every kind arise from want of the habit of thinking, I cannot doubt.

Prejudices of taste, likings and dislikings, are not always vanquishable by reason.