It is well within the order of things that man should listen when his mate sings; but the true male never yet walked who liked to listen when his mate talked.

America is a model of force and freedom and moderation – with all the coarseness and rudeness of its people.

The dew of compassion is a tear.

It is very certain that the desire of life prolongs it.

I think the dangers are different now. Our abuse of the planet and our resources is an anxiety.

I would rather have a nod from an American, than a snuff-box from an emperor.

If we must have a tyrant, let him at least be a gentleman who has been bred to the business, and let us fall by the axe and not by the butcher’s cleaver.

To punish a man because we infer from the nature of some doctrine which he holds, or from the conduct of other persons who hold the same doctrines with him, that he will commit a...

I have always believed that all things depended upon Fortune, and nothing upon ourselves.

Though I love my country, I do not love my countrymen.

Her great merit is finding out mine – there is nothing so amiable as discernment.

The fight ended. For both was victory. For both there was defeat.

I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.

Between two worlds life hovers like a star, twixt night and morn, upon the horizon’s verge.

Let none think to fly the danger for soon or late love is his own avenger.

I’ll be left writing picture books and fairy tales.

Why I came here, I know not; where I shall go it is useless to inquire – in the midst of myriads of the living and the dead worlds, stars, systems, infinity, why should I...

The ‘good old times’ – all times when old are good.

Man’s love is of man’s life a part; it is a woman’s whole existence. In her first passion, a woman loves her lover, in all the others all she loves is love.

The great art of life is sensation, to feel that we exist, even in pain.

‘Tis very certain the desire of life prolongs it.

Between 9am and 3pm is when I work most intensely.

Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.

Men are the sport of circumstances when it seems circumstances are the sport of men.

American democracy must be a failure because it places the supreme authority in the hands of the poorest and most ignorant part of the society.

Christmas is taken very seriously in this household. I believe in Father Christmas, and there’s no way I’d do anything to undermine that belief.

Man is born passionate of body, but with an innate though secret tendency to the love of Good in his main-spring of Mind. But God help us all! It is at present a sad jar...

Where there is mystery, it is generally suspected there must also be evil.

I do detest everything which is not perfectly mutual.

A mistress never is nor can be a friend. While you agree, you are lovers; and when it is over, anything but friends.

Roll on, deep and dark blue ocean, roll. Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain. Man marks the earth with ruin, but his control stops with the shore.

Every day is a gift with a child, no matter what problems you have.

It is odd but agitation or contest of any kind gives a rebound to my spirits and sets me up for a time.

To have joy one must share it. Happiness was born a twin.

And to say that society ought to be governed by the opinion of the wisest and best, though true, is useless. Whose opinion is to decide who are the wisest and best?

Edinburgh is my favourite city. We’ll be doing a lot of children’s theatre and galleries.

Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure.

I cannot help thinking that the menace of Hell makes as many devils as the severe penal codes of inhuman humanity make villains.

In England the only homage which they pay to Virtue – is hypocrisy.

The beginning of atonement is the sense of its necessity.

A thousand years may scare form a state. An hour may lay it in ruins.

I write in that space between Ella’s childhood and mine. I know it all sounds a bit sinister.

There is no instinct like that of the heart.

Fame is the thirst of youth.

Men are never so likely to settle a question rightly as when they discuss it freely.

Poetry and prayer are very similar.

Sorrow is knowledge, those that know the most must mourn the deepest, the tree of knowledge is not the tree of life.

Folly loves the martyrdom of fame.

As long as I retain my feeling and my passion for Nature, I can partly soften or subdue my other passions and resist or endure those of others.

For pleasures past I do not grieve, nor perils gathering near; My greatest grief is that I leave nothing that claims a tear.