"There are things that happen and leave no discernible trace, are not spoken of or written of, though it would be wrong to say that subsequent events go on indifferently, all the same, as though such things had never been."

"And where may hide what came and loved our clay? as the Poet asked finely."

"Despite the snow, despite the falling snow."

"I shall from time to time write a small Clue — so that you may be the more thoroughly confounded."

"Second thoughts are oftentimes the very worst of all thoughts."

"The fund of sensible discourse is limited; that of jest and badinerie is infinite."

"Independency may be found in comparative, as well as absolute abundance: I mean when a person contracts his desires within the limits of his fortune."

"Prudent men should lock up their motives, giving only their intimates a key."

"A fool and his words are soon parted; a man of genius and his money."

"Some men are called sagacious, merely on account of their avarice: whereas a child can clench its fist the moment it is born."

"Health is beauty, and the most perfect health is the most perfect beauty."

"There seem near as many people that want passion as want reason."

"Every good poet includes a critic; the reverse will not hold."

"Necessity may be the mother of lucrative invention, but it is the death of poetical invention."

"Love can be founded upon nature only; or the appearance of it."

"Zealous men are ever displaying to you the strength of their belief, while judicious men are shewing you the grounds of it."

"Laws are generally found to be nets of such a texture, as the little creep through, the great break through, and the middle size are alone entangled in."

"While we labour to subdue our passions, we should take care not to extinguish them. Subduing our passions, is disengaging ourselves from the world; to which however, Whilst we reside in it, we must always bear relation; and we may detach ourselves to such a degree as to pass an useless and insipid life, which we were not meant to do. Our existence here is at least one part of a system.A man has generally the good or ill qualities which he attributes to mankind."

"It is a miserable thing to love where one hates; and yet it is not inconsistent."

"Theirs is the present who can praise the past."

"Sloth views the tow'rs of fame with envious eyes; Desirous still, still impotent to rise."

"Let the gull'd fool the toil of war pursue, Where bleed the many to enrich the few."

"Let us be careful to distinguish modesty, which is ever amiable, from reserve, which is only prudent."

"I have found out a gift for my fair; I have found where the wood-pigeons breed."

"Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull round, Where'er his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest welcome, at an inn."

"A large, branching, aged oak, is perhaps the most venerable of all inanimate objects."

"She pleas'd while distant, but, when near, she charm'd."

"So sweetly she bade me adieu, I thought that she bade me return."

"My banks they are furnish’d with bees, Whose murmur invites one to sleep."

"A man of remarkable genius may afford to pass by a piece of wit, if it happens to border on abuse. A little genius is obliged to catch at every witticism indiscriminately."

"It pleased the great Creator of the world to make three sorts of living creatures. Angels he made pure spirits, without flesh, and therefore he made them only for heaven and not to dwell on earth. Beasts were made flesh, without immortal souls, and therefore they were made only for the earth and not for heaven: Man is of a middle nature between both, as partaking of both flesh and spirit, so is he made for earth, but as his passage or way to heaven, and not that this should be his home or happiness. The blessed state that man was made for was to behold the glorious majesty of the Lord and to praise him among his holy angels; and to love him, and to be filled with his love forever."

"As the fire doth mount upwards, and the needle that is touched with the loadstone still turneth to the north, so the converted soul is inclined to God. Nothing else can satisfy him, nor can he find any content and rest but in his love. In a word, all that are converted do esteem and love God better than all the world; and the heavenly felicity is dearer to them than their fleshly prosperity."

"And therefore you must know that you can forfeit the grace and help of God by your willful sinning or negligence, though you cannot, without grace, turn to God. If you will not do what you can, it is just with God to deny you that grace by which you might do more."

"Oft has good-nature been the fool's defence, And honest meaning gilded want of sense."

"Christ leads me through no darker rooms Than He went through before."

"Do not mathematics and all sciences seem full of contradictions and impossibilities to the ignorant, which are all resolved and cleared to those that understand them?"

"Her cap, far whiter than the driven snow, Emblem right meet of decency does yield."

"If I were but sure that I should live to see the coming of the Lord, it would be the joyfulest tidings in the world. O that I might see His kingdom come! It is the characteristic of His saints to love His appearing, and to look for that blessed hope. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come." "Even so, come, Lord Jesus.""

"All are making haste towards hell, until by conviction, Christ brings them to a halt, and then, by conversion, turns their hearts and lives sincerely to himself."

"Special mercy arouses more gratitude than universal mercy."

"When the Son of God comes to rescue us and bring us back to God, He does not find in us the ability to believe."

"In hell, sinners shall forever lay all the blame on their own wills. Hell is a rational torment by conscience."

"Sinners, hear and consider, if you wilfully condemn your souls to bestiality, God will condemn them to perpetual misery."

"Pun-provoking thyme."

"A little bench of heedless bishops here, And there a chancellor in embryo."

"Love is a pleasing, but a various clime!"

"I trimm'd my lamp, consumed the midnight oil."

"Perish the lover, whose imperfect flame Forgets one feature of the nymph he lov'd."

"For seldom shall she hear a tale So sad, so tender, yet so true."

"Lytton is one of the authors upon whose merits the critics have never agreed with the public. He won immense popularity in the face of generally hostile criticism, and even his success failed to obtain a reversal of the judgment. Some of his qualities, however, are incontestable. No English author has displayed more industry, energy, versatility, or less disposition to lapse into slovenliness. His last works are among his best; and though he often tried the experiment of publishing anonymously (as in The Caxtons and The Coming Race), his success showed that his popularity did not depend upon his previous fame."