“Misfortune is a fine opiate to personal terror.”

“--the ethereal, fine-nerved, sensitive girl, quite unfitted by temperament and instinct to fulfil the conditions of the matrimonial relation with Phillotson, possibly with scarce any man...”

“The perfect woman, you see [is] a working-woman; not an idler; not a fine lady; but one who [uses] her hands and her head and her heart for the good of others.”

“You, and those like you, take your fill of pleasure on earth by making the life of such as me bitter and black with sorrow; and then it is a fine thing, when you have had enough of that, to think of securing your pleasure in heaven by becoming converted!”

“Persons with any weight of character carry, like planets, their atmospheres along with them in their orbits.”

“Perché dovremmo mettere fine a tutto ciò che è dolce e bello? - ella scongiurava - Quanto deve avvenire, avverrà - ...... - Tutto è angoscia laggiù, e qui dentro tutto è felicità.Anch'egli gettò un'occhiata fuori. Era proprio vero; dentro c'era affetto, unione, il perdono dell'errore; fuori stava l'inesorabile”

“The purpose of a chronicler of moods and deeds does not require him to express his personal views upon the grave controversy above given.”