We may admire people for being wise, but we like them best when they are foolish.

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

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.

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

... they know little of the passions who seek to argue with that most intractable of them all, the fear that is born of love.

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

In our present high state of civilization, people are so much alike, that anything at all odd comes on one with the freshness and character of an antique coin among smooth shillings.