A child should always say what's true, And speak when he is spoken to, And behave mannerly at table: At least as far as he is able.

And every day when I've been good, I get an orange after food.

Money alone is only a mean; it presupposes a man to use it. The rich man can go where he pleases, but perhaps please himself nowhere. He can buy a library or visit the whole world, but perhaps has neither patience to read nor intelligence to see.... The purse may be full and the heart empty. He may have gained the world and lost himself; and with all his wealth around him ... he may live as blank a life as any tattered ditcher.

To believe in immortality is one thing, but it is first needful to believe in life.

My idea of man's chief end was to enrich the world with things of beauty, and have a fairly good time myself while doing so.

The seeming significance of nature's appearances, their unchanging strangeness to the senses, and the thrilling response which they awaken in the mind of man . . . If we could only write near enough to the facts, and yet with no pedestrian calm, but ardently, we might transfer the glamour of reality direct upon our pages.

Marriage is one long conversation, chequered by disputes.