I only asked my friends to be friendly and polite, I found them indifferent and censorious; The one I left to silence, the other to reproach: God send me over all such friends victorious.

Nothing is more wistful than the scent of lilac, nor more robust than its woody stalk, for we must remember that it is a tree as well as a flower, we must try not to forget this.

It is an amiable part of human nature, that we should love our animals; it is even better to love them to the point of folly, than not to love them at all.

A man may forgive many wrongs, but he cannot easily forgive anyone who makes it plain that his conversation is tedious.

I like food, I like stripping vegetables of their skins, I like to have a slim young parsnip under my knife.

I may be smelly and I may be old, Rough in my pebbles, reedy in my pools, But where my fish float by I bless their swimming, And I like the people to bathe in me especially women.

Unpopular, lonely and loving, Elinor need not trouble, For if she were not so loving, She would not be so miserable.