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.

Fashion is a capricious deity.

No fear of forgetting the good-humoured faces that meet us in our walks each day.

[On Elizabeth Barrett Browning:] Her sweetness of character is even beyond her genius.

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

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

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.