“[I]f a book is well written, I always find it too short.”

“but for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short.”

“I . . . am always half afraid of finding a clever novel too clever--& of finding my own story & my own people all forestalled.”

“No- I cannot talk of books in a ballroom; my head is always full of something else.”

“Let us never underestimate the power of a well-written letter.”

“I do not think I ever opened a book in my life which had not something to say upon woman's inconstancy. Songs and proverbs, all talk of woman's fickleness. But perhaps you will say, these were all written by men.""Perhaps I shall. Yes, yes, if you please, no reference to examples in books. Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.”

“It was a delightful visit;-perfect, in being much too short.”