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

[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.

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

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

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

The power of admiring whatever is deserving of admiration, the nice and quick perception of the beautiful and the true, is one of the highest and noblest of our faculties, born of taste, and knowledge, and wisdom, or rather it is taste, and wisdom, and knowledge, in one rare and great combination.

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.