Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
If you had told Sycorax that her son Caliban was as handsome as Apollo, she would have been pleased, witch as she was.
Are not there little chapters in everybody's life, that seem to be nothing, and yet affect all the rest of the history?
When a man is in love with one woman in a family, it is astonishing how fond he becomes of every person connected with it.
The death of a child occasions a passion of grief and frantic tears, such as your end, brother reader, will never inspire.
To see a young couple loving each other is no wonder; but to see an old couple loving each other is the best sight of all.
Hint at the existence of wickedness in a light, easy, and agreeable manner, so that nobody's fine feelings may be offended.
Let us be very gentle with our neighbors' failings, and forgive our friends their debts as we hope ourselves to be forgiven.
Oh, Vanity of vanities! How wayward the decrees of Fate are; How very weak the very wise, How very small the very great are!
The moral world has no particular objection to vice, but an insuperable repugnance to hearing vice called by its proper name.
We can't all be lions in this world. There must be some lambs, harmless, kindly, gregarious creatures for eating and shearing.
We know that Heaven chastens those whom it loves best; being pleased by repeated trials, to make . . . pure spirits more pure.
Charlotte, having seen his body Borne before her on a shutter, Like a well-conducted person, Went on cutting bread and butter.
The tallest and the smallest among us are so alike diminutive and pitifully base, it is a meanness to calculate the difference.
A snob is that man or woman who is always pretending to be something better--especially richer or more fashionable--than he is.
A lady who sets her heart upon a lad in uniform must prepare to change lovers pretty quickly, or her life will be but a sad one.
Novels are sweets. All people with healthy literary appetites love them-almost all women; a vast number of clever, hardheaded men.
When Fate wills that something should come to pass, she sends forth a million of little circumstances to clear and prepare the way.
Oh, brother wearers of motley, are there not moments when one grows sick of grinning and trembling and the jingling of cap and bells?
Then sing as Martin Luther sang, As Doctor Martin Luther sang, "Who loves not wine, woman and song, He is a fool his whole life long."
We pass by common objects or persons without noticing them; but the keen eye detects and notes types everywhere and among all classes.
The play is done; the curtain drops, Slow falling to the prompter's bell A moment yet the actor stops And looks around to say farewell.
Come forward, some great marshal, and organize equality in society, and your rod shall swallow up all the juggling old court gold-sticks
Werther had a love for Charlotte Such as words could never utter; Would you know how first he met her? She was cutting bread and butter.
If a man has committed wrong in life, I don't know any moralist more anxious to point his errors out to the world than his own relations.
If dying, I yet live in a tender heart or two; nor am I lost and hopeless living, if a sainted departed soul still loves and prays for me.
What woman, however old, has not the bridal-favours and raiment stowed away, and packed in lavender, in the inmost cupboards of her heart?
Lucky he who has been educated to bear his fate, whatsoever it may be, by an early example of uprightness, and a childish training in honor.
Under the magnetism of friendship the modest man becomes bold; the shy, confident; the lazy, active; and the impetuous, prudent and peaceful.
A crow, who had flown away with a cheese from a dairy window, sate perched on a tree looking down at a great big frog in a pool underneath him.
Do not be in a hurry to succeed. What would you have to live for afterwards? Better make the horizon your goal; it will always be ahead of you.
One tires of a page of which every sentence sparkles with points, of a sentimentalist who is always pumping the tears from his eyes or your own.
Who feels injustice, who shrinks before a slight, who has a sense of wrong so acute, and so glowing a gratitude for kindness, as a generous boy?
There is no good in living in a society where you are merely the equal of everybody else. The true pleasure of life is to live with your inferiors.
What man's life is not overtaken by one or more of those tornadoes that send us out of the course, and fling us on rocks to shelter as best we may?
Some cynical Frenchman has said that there are two parties to a love-transaction: the one who loves and the other who condescends to be so treated.
When a mother, as fond mothers will; vows that she knows every thought in her daughter's heart, I think she pretends to know a great deal too much.
At certain periods of life, we live years of emotion in a few weeks, and look back on those times as on great gaps between the old life and the new.
Always to be right, always to trample forward, and never to doubt, are not these the great qualities with which dullness takes the lead in the world?
Happy! Who is happy? Was there not a serpent in Paradise itself? And if Eve had been perfectly happy beforehand, would she have listened to the tempter?
I have seen no men in life loving their profession so much as painters, except, perhaps, actors, who, when not engaged themselves, always go to the play.
One of the great conditions of anger and hatred is, that you must tell and believe lies against the hated object, in order, as we said, to be consistent.
Who was the blundering idiot who said 'fine words butter no parsnips'? Half the parsnips of society are served and rendered palatable with no other sauce.
The wicked are wicked, no doubt, and they go astray and they fall, and they come by their deserts; but who can tell the mischief which the very virtuous do?
It was in the reign of George II. that the above-named personages lived and quarrelled ; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now
When I say that I know women, I mean I know that I don't know them. Every single woman I ever knew is a puzzle to me, as, I have no doubt, she is to herself.
I want a sofa, as I want a friend, upon which I can repose familiarly. If you can't have intimate terms and freedom with one and the other, they are of no good.
Ah! gracious Heaven gives us eyes to see our own wrong, however dim age may make them; and knees not too stiff to kneel, in spite of years, cramp, and rheumatism.
Sir, Respect Your Dinner: idolize it, enjoy it properly. You will be many hours in the week, many weeks in the year, and many years in your life happier if you do.
Tis hard with respect to Beauty, that its possessor should not have a life enjoyment of it, but be compelled to resign it after, at the most, some forty years lease
I wonder is it because men are cowards in heart that they admire bravery so much, and place military valor so far beyond every other quality for reward and worship.