... most people are dead, and none of them seem to mind it. One hears a great many complaints about life, doesn't one? And there are people I know who would certainly grumble -- however dead they were -- if there were anything to grumble at.

... can life be made undignified by any act of man?

if you listen long enough - or is it deep enough? - the silence of a lover can speak plainer than any words! Only you must know how to listen. Pain must have taught you how.

A man whose every exertion is bent upon showing up the flaws in his wife's character must be at least partially responsible for some of them.

To see a shadow and think it is a tree that is a pity; but to see a tree and to think it a shadow can be fatal.

A desire that has never been fulfilled is considerably less acute than one that has been fulfilled and then checked at the source.

the unfortunate thing about worldliness is that its rewards are rather less than its appetites.