“Life is so unlike theory.”

“For there is no folly so great as keeping one's sorrows hidden.”

“You shall be my pet, and my poppet, and my dearest little duck all the days of your life.”

“There is nothing in the world so difficult as that task of making up one's mind. Who is there that has not longed that the power and privilege of selection among alternatives should be taken away from him in some important crisis of his life, and that his conduct should be arranged for him, either this way or that, by some divine power if it were possible, - by some patriarchal power in the absence of divinity, - or by chance, even, if nothing better than chance could be found to do it? But no one dares to cast the die, and to go honestly by the hazard. There must be the actual necessity of obeying the die, before even the die can be of any use.”

“Romance is very pretty in novels, but the romance of a life is always a melancholy matter. They are most happy who have no story to tell.”

“I have passed the period of a woman's life when as a woman she is loved; but I have have not outlived the power of loving.”

“He was one of those men who, as in youth they are never very young, so in age are they never very old.”