“Love is like quicksilver in the hand. Leave the fingers open and it stays. Clutch it and it darts away.”

“Daily dawns another day;I must up, to make my way.Though I dress and drink and eat,Move my fingers and my feet,Learn a little, here and there,Weep and laugh and sweat and swear,Hear a song, or watch a stage,Leave some words upon a page,Claim a foe, or hail a friend-Bed awaits me at the end.”

“There was nothing separate about her days. Like drops on the window-pane, they ran together and trickled away.”

“I like best to have one book in my hand, and a stack of others on the floor beside me, so as to know the supply of poppy and mandragora will not run out before the small hours.”

“Take me or leave me; or, as is the usual order of things, both.”

“I'm of the glamorous ladiesAt whose beckoning history shook.But you are a man, and see only my pan,So I stay at home with a book.”

“If I didn't care for fun and such,I'd probably amount to much.But I shall stay the way I am,Because I do not give a damn.”