It is difficult for a woman to define her feelings in language which is chiefly made by men to express theirs.

It may have been observed that there is no regular path for getting out of love as there is for getting in. Some people look upon marriage as a short cut that way, but it has been known to fail.

The sky was clear - remarkably clear - and the twinkling of all the stars seemed to be but throbs of one body, timed by a common pulse.

I have felt lately, more and more, that my present way of living is bad in every respect.

Love is a possible strength in an actual weakness.

...the figure near at hand suffers on such occasions, because it shows up its sorriness without shade; while vague figures afar off are honored, in that their distance makes artistic virtues of their stains. In considering what Tess was not, he overlooked what she was, and forgot that the defective can be more than the entire.

I may do some good before I am dead--be a sort of success as a frightful example of what not to do; and so illustrate a moral story.