I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of work of fiction should be to tell a story.

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 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 am not against hasty marriages where a mutual flame is fanned by an adequate income.

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.

But I am a just man, even to my enemy - and I will acknowledge, beforehand, that they are cleverer brains than I thought them

Is there any wilderness of sand in the deserts of Arabia, is there any prospect of desolation among the ruins of Palestine, which can rival the repelling effect on the eye, and the depressing influence on the mind, of an English country town in the first stage of its existence, and in the transition state of its prosperity?