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

Everybody must be managed. Queens must be managed. Kings must be managed, for men want managing almost as much as women, and that's saying a good deal.

A woman would rather visit her own grave than the place where she has been young and beautiful after she is aged and ugly.

Is a woman a thinking unit at all, or a fraction always wanting its integer?

...he seemed to approach the grave as an hyperbolic curve approaches a line, less directly as he got nearer, till it was doubtful if he would ever reach it at all.

You could sometimes see her twelfth year in her cheeks, or her ninth sparkling from her eyes; and even her fifth would flit over the curves of her mouth now and then.

If an offense come out of the truth, better is it that the offense come than that the truth be concealed.