Love, the one supreme, unceasing source of human felicity, the one sole joy which lifts the whole mortal existence into the empyrean, was by it [Christianity] degraded into the mere mechanical action of reproduction.

Intensely selfish people are always very decided as to what they wish. They do not waste their energies in considering the good of others.

nothing is so pleasant ... as to display your worldly wisdom in epigram and dissertation, but it is a trifle tedious to hear another person display theirs.

age is nothing but death that is conscious.

Music is not a science any more than poetry is. It is a sublime instinct, like genius of all kinds.

you have not a boat of your own, that is just it; that is what women always suffer from; they have to steer, but the craft is some one else's, and the haul too.

There is a chord in every heart that has a sigh in it if touched aright.