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

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

[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 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.

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

To think of playing cricket for hard cash! Money and gentility would ruin any pastime under the sun.