I have still the best comforts of life - books and friendships - and I trust never to lose my relish for either.

Nothing so pretty to look at as my garden!

I foresee that the Andersen and Fairy Tale fashion will not last; none of these things away from general nature do.

I prepare myself for all disappointments by expecting nothing.

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.

[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.

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.