By experience", says Roger Ascham, "we find out a short way by a long wandering." Not seldom that long wandering unfits us for further travel, and of what use is our experience to us then?

Everybody is so talented nowadays that the only people I care to honor as deserving real distinction are those who remain in obscurity.

Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness.

Don't think of what's past!" said she. "I am not going to think outside of now. Why should we! Who knows what tomorrow has in store?

You don't talk quite like a girl who has had no advantages.

She was not an existence, an experience, a passion, a structure of sensations, to anybody but herself. To all humankind besides Tess was only a passing thought. Even to friends she was no more than a frequently passing thought.

My wicked heart will ramble on in spite of myself. (Arabella)