There is more here than meets the eye.
Intimacy between stepchildren and stepparents is indeed proverbially difficult.
I have a theory of my own about what the art of the novel is, and how it came into being....It happens because the storyteller's own experience...has moved him to an emotion so passionate that he can no longer keep it shut up in his heart.
Real things in the darkness seem no realer than dreams.
farewell' is a monster among words, and never yet sounded kindly in any ear.
It is useless to talk with those who do not understand one and troublesome to talk with those who criticize from a feeling of superiority. Especially one-sided persons are troublesome. Few are accomplished in many arts and most cling narrowly to their own opinion.