Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
It always seemed to me a sort of clever stupidity only to have one sort of talent - like a carrier pigeon.
The tale of the Divine Pity was never yet believed from lips that were not felt to be moved by human pity.
An ingenious web of probabilities is the surest screen a wise man can place between himself and the truth.
Alas! the scientific conscience had got into the debasing company of money obligation and selfish respects.
When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity.
Speech may be barren; but it is ridiculous to suppose that silence is always brooding on a nestful of eggs.
College mostly makes people like bladders-just good for nothing but t'hold the stuff as is poured into 'em.
Every man who is not a monster, a mathematician, or a mad philosopher, is the slave of some woman or other.
If the past is not to bind us, where can duty lie? We should have no law but the inclination of the moment.
There are natures in which, if they love us, we are conscious of having a sort of baptism and consecration.
It was not that she was out of temper, but that the world was not equal to the demands of her fine organism.
... happy husbands and wives can hear each other say the same thing over and over again without being tired.
People glorify all sorts of bravery except the bravery they might show on behalf of their nearest neighbors.
They say fortune is a woman and capricious. But sometimes she is a good woman, and gives to those who merit.
Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts—not to hurt others.
If a man goes a little too far along a new road, it is usually himself that he harms more than any one else.
Can any man or woman choose duties? No more than they can choose their birthplace or their father and mother.
Thought Has joys apart, even in blackest woe, And seizing some fine thread of verity Knows momentary godhead.
Every year strips us of at least one vain expectation, and teaches us to reckon some solid good in its stead.
I shall never love anybody. I can't love people. I hate them.' 'The time will come, dear, the time will come.
I easily sink into mere absorption of what other minds have done, and should like a whole life for that alone.
There is a sort of human paste that when it comes near the fire of enthusiasm is only baked into harder shape.
The beginning of an acquaintance whether with persons or things is to get a definite outline of our ignorance.
Sane people did what their neighbors did, so that if any lunatics were at large, one might know and avoid them.
If a woman's young and pretty, I think you can see her good looks all the better for her being plainly dressed.
There are robberies that leave man or woman forever beggared of peace and joy, yet kept secret by the sufferer.
Folks as have no mind to be o' use have allays the luck to be out o' the road when there's anything to be done.
Say "I love you" to those you love. The eternal silence is long enough to be silent in, and that awaits us all.
The thing we look forward to often comes to pass, but never precisely in the way we have imagined to ourselves.
No story is the same to us after a lapse of time; or rather we who read it are no longer the same interpreters.
I think there are stores laid up in our human nature that our understandings can make no complete inventory of.
Oh may I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence.
... indefinite visions of ambition are weak against the ease of doing what is habitual or beguilingly agreeable.
But with regard to critical occasions, it often happens that all moments seem comfortably remote until the last.
It is a common enough case, that of a man being suddenly captivated by a woman nearly the opposite of his ideal.
That farewell kiss which resembles greeting, that last glance of love which becomes the sharpest pang of sorrow.
Hold up your head! You were not made for failure, you were made for victory. Go forward with a joyful confidence.
And when a woman's will is as strong as the man's who wants to govern her, half her strength must be concealment.
When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.
She was no longer struggling against the perception of facts, but adjusting herself to their clearest perception.
Ignorance ... is a painless evil; so, I should think, is dirt, considering the merry faces that go along with it.
Failure after long perseverance is much grander than never to have a striving good enough to be called a failure.
When you get me a good man made out of arguments, I will get you a good dinner with reading you the cookery book.
A toddling little girl is a centre of common feeling which makes the most dissimilar people understand each other.
Falsehood is so easy, truth so difficult. Even with no motive to be false, it is very hard to say the exact truth.
The greatest benefit we owe to the artist, whether painter, poet, or novelist, is the extension of our sympathies.
No evil dooms us hopelessly except the evil we love, and desire to continue in, and make no effort to escape from.
He was of an impressible nature, and lived a great deal in other people's opinions and feelings concerning himself.
I like not only to be loved, but to be told that I am loved; the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave.
Mankind is not disposed to look narrowly into the conduct of great victors when their victory is on the right side.