“Folly is as often justified of her children as wisdom.”

“Beauty (was)a gift which, in the eyes of New York, justified every success, and excused a certain number of failings.”

“To know when to be generous and when firm—that is wisdom.”

“You mustn't tell your dreams. Miss Testvalley says nothing bores people so much as being told other people's dreams. Nan said nothing, but an iron gate seemed to clang shut in her - the gate that was so often slammed by careless hands. As if anyone could be bored by such dreams as hers!”

“Life is the only real counselor; wisdom unfiltered through personal experience does not become a part of the moral tissue. ”

“She was so evidently the victim of the civilization which had produced her, that the links of her bracelet seemed like manacles chaining her to her fate.”

“Her soul opened slowly and timidly to her kind, but her imagination rushed out to the beauties of the visible world; and the decaying majesty of Allfriars moved her strangely.”