A sort of transaction went on between them, in which she was on one side, and life was on another, and she was always trying to get the better of it, as it was of her.

I do not want to be admired. I want to give, to be given, and solitude in which to unfold my possessions.

The weather varies between heavy fog and pale sunshine; My thoughts follow the exact same process.

Young women... you are, in my opinion, disgracefully ignorant. You have never made a discovery of any sort of importance. You have never shaken an empire or led an army into battle. The plays by Shakespeare are not by you, and you have never introduced a barbarous race to the blessings of civilization. What is your excuse?

The immense success of our life is, I think, that our treasure is hid away; or rather in such common things that nothing can touch it.

So coming back from a journey, or after an illness, before habits had spun themselves across the surface, one felt that same unreality, which was so startling; felt something emerge. Life was most vivid then.

One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them.