How I have tried and tried to be a splendid woman, and how destiny has been against me! ...I do not deserve my lot! ...O, the cruelty of putting me into this ill-conceived world! I was capable of much; but I have been injured and blighted and crushed by things beyond my control! O, how hard it is of Heaven to devise such tortures for me, who have done no harm to heaven at all!

That man's silence is wonderful to listen to.

It was the touch of the imperfect upon the would-be perfect that gave the sweetness, because it was that which gave the humanity

To be loved to madness--such was her great desire. Love was to her the one cordial which could drive away the eating loneliness of her days. And she seemed to long for the abstraction called passionate love more than for any particular lover.

Well, what I mean is that I shouldn't mind being a bride at a wedding, if I could be one without having a husband.

Bless thy simplicity, Tess

She was but a transient impression, half forgotten.