Any woman who is sure of her own wits, is a match, at any time, for a man who is not sure of his own temper.

The books - the generous friends who met me without suspicion - the merciful masters who never used me ill!

Some of us rush through life, and some of us saunter through life. Mrs Vesey sat through life.

I sadly want a reform in the construction of children. Nature's only idea seems to be to make them machines for the production of incessant noise.

I haven't much time to be fond of anything ... but when I have a moment's fondness to bestow, most times ... the roses get it. I began my life among them in my father's nursery garden, and I shall end my life among them, if I can. Yes. One of these days (please God) I shall retire from catching thieves, and try my hand at growing roses.

I have noticed that the Christianity of a certain class of respectable people begins when they open their prayer-books at eleven o'clock on Sunday morning, and ends when they shut them up again at one o'clock on Sunday afternoon. Nothing so astonishes and insults Christians of this sort as reminding them of their Christianity on a week-day.

She looked so irresistibly beautiful as she said those brave words that no man alive could have steel his heart against her.