Nothing so pretty to look at as my garden!

I 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.

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

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.

Well, great authors are great people - but I believe that they are best seen at a distance.

Nothing so pretty to look at as my garden!

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