"[Most people] are neither extraordinarily silly, nor extraordinarily wicked, nor extraordinarily wise; their eyes are neither deep and liquid with sentiment, nor sparkling with suppressed witticisms; they have probably had no hairbreadth escapes or thrilling adventures; their brains are certainly not pregnant with genius, and their passions have not manifested themselves at all after the fashion of a volcano. ... Depend upon it, you would gain unspeakably if you would learn with me to see some of the poetry and the pathos, the tragedy and the comedy, lying in the experience of a human soul that looks out through dull grey eyes, and that speaks in a voice of quite ordinary tones."

"Every man who is not a monster, a mathematician, or a mad philosopher, is the slave of some woman or other."

"Nice distinctions are troublesome. It is so much easier to say that a thing is black, than to discriminate the particular shade of brown, blue, or green, to which it really belongs. It is so much easier to make up your mind that your neighbour is good for nothing, than to enter into all the circumstances that would oblige you to modify that opinion."

"May I unceasingly aspire to unclothe all around me of its conventional, human, temporary dress, to look at it in its essence and in its relation to eternity."

"The difficulty is, to decide how far resolution should set in the direction of activity rather than in the acceptance of a more negative state."

"What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?"

"The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone."

"The darkest night that ever fell upon the earth never hid the light, never put out the stars. It only made the stars more keenly, kindly glancing, as if in protest against the darkness."

"Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact."

"I like not only to be loved, but also to be told that I am loved. I am not sure that you are of the same kind. But the realm of silence is large enough beyond the grave. This is the world of light and speech, and I shall take leave to tell you that you are very dear."

"Apropos of the "The Lifted Veil," I think it will not be judicious to reprint it at present. I care for the idea which it embodies, and which justifies its painfulness. A motto which I wrote on it yesterday perhaps is a sufficient indication of that idea: —"

"'Tis God gives skill, But not without men's hands: He could not make Antonio Stradivari's violins Without Antonio."

"An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry."

"I'm proof against that word failure. I've seen behind it. The only failure a man ought to fear is failure of cleaving to the purpose he sees to be best."

"I wish to use my last hours of ease and strength in telling the strange story of my experience. I have never fully unbosomed myself to any human being; I have never been encouraged to trust much in the sympathy of my fellow-men. But we have all a chance of meeting with some pity, some tenderness, some charity, when we are dead: it is the living only who cannot be forgiven — the living only from whom men's indulgence and reverence are held off, like the rain by the hard east wind. While the heart beats, bruise it — it is your only opportunity; while the eye can still turn towards you with moist, timid entreaty, freeze it with an icy unanswering gaze; while the ear, that delicate messenger to the inmost sanctuary of the soul, can still take in the tones of kindness, put it off with hard civility, or sneering compliment, or envious affectation of indifference; while the creative brain can still throb with the sense of injustice, with the yearning for brotherly recognition — make haste — oppress it with your ill-considered judgements, your trivial comparisons, your careless misrepresentations. The heart will by and by be still — "ubi saeva indignatio ulterius cor lacerare nequit" the eye will cease to entreat; the ear will be deaf; the brain will have ceased from all wants as well as from all work. Then your charitable speeches may find vent; then you may remember and pity the toil and the struggle and the failure; then you may give due honour to the work achieved; then you may find extenuation for errors, and may consent to bury them."

"If art does not enlarge men's sympathies, it does nothing morally."

"My own experience and development deepen everyday my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy."

"The real drama of Evangelicalism—and it has abundance of fine drama for any one who has genius enough to discern and reproduce it—lies among the middle and lower classes; and are not Evangelical opinions understood to give an especial interest in the weak things of the earth, rather than in the mighty?"

"We have a pretty witty king, Whose word no man relies on; He never said a foolish thing, Nor ever did a wise one."

"The Elephant is never won with Anger, Nor must that man, who would reclaim a Lion, Take him by the teeth."

"Great Negative, how vainly would the Wise Enquire, define, distinguish, teach, devise, Didst thou not stand to point their dull Philosophies?Is, or is not, the Two great Ends of Fate, And, true or false, the Subject of Debate, That perfect, or destroy, the vast Designs of Fate."

"The clog of all pleasure, the luggage of life, Is the best can be said for a very good wife."

"Reason, an Ignis fatuus of the Mind, Which leaves the light of Nature, Sense, behind."

"Were I, who to my Cost already am One of those strange, prodigious Creatures Man, A Spirit free, to choose for my own Share, What sort of Flesh and Blood I pleas'd to wear, I'd be a Dog, a Monkey, or a Bear, Or any thing, but that vain Animal, Who is so proud of being Rational."

"When my young master's worship comes to town, From pedagogue and mother just fit free, The heir and hopes of a great famiiy; Who with strong beer and beef the country rules, And ever since the Conquest have been fools; And now, with careful prospect to maintain This character, lest crossing of the strain Should mend the booby breed, his friends provide A cousin of his own to be his bride..."

"Love, the most generous passion of the mind The softest refuge innocence can find"

"Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories."

"Here lies our sovereign lord the king, Whose word no man relies on; He never says a foolish thing, Nor ever does a wise one."

"Let the greatest part of the news thou hearest be the least part of what thou believest, lest the greater part of what thou believest be the least part of what is true. Where lies are easily admitted the father of lies will not easily be excluded."

"Anger, when it is long in coming, is the stronger when it comes, and the longer kept."

"Let the fear of a danger be a spur to prevent it: He that fears otherwise, gives advantage to the danger."

"It is the lot of man but once to die."

"The next way home's the farthest way about."

"The road to resolution lies by doubt: The next way home's the farthest way about."

"The slender debt to Nature's quickly paid, Discharged, perchance, with greater ease than made."

"Be wisely worldly, be not worldly wise."

"We spend our midday sweat, our midnight oil; We tire the night in thought, the day in toil."

"Sweet Phosphor, bring the day Whose conquering ray May chase these fogs; Sweet Phosphor, bring the day! Sweet Phosphor, bring the day! Light will repay The wrongs of night; Sweet Phosphor, bring the day!"

"This house is to be let for life or years; Her rent is sorrow, and her income tears. Cupid, 't has long stood void; her bills make known, She must be dearly let, or let alone."

"In having all things, and not Thee, what have I? Not having Thee, what have my labors got? Let me enjoy but Thee, what farther crave I? And having Thee alone, what have I not?"

"Death aims with fouler spite At fairer marks."

"The world's an Inn; and I her guest."

"Let all thy joys be as the month of May And all thy days be as a marriage day: Let sorrow, sickness, and a troubled mind Be stranger to thee."

"And what's a life? A weary pilgrimage, Whose glory in one day doth fill the stage With childhood, manhood, and decrepit age."

"Thou art my life, my way, my light"

"My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on; Judge not the play before the play is done: Her plot hath many changes; every day Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play."

"He that loves thee, He that keeps And guards thee, never slumbers, never sleeps."

"Reason can discover Things only near; sees nothing that's above her."

"Even such is man, whose glory lends His life a blaze or two, and ends."

"Shine Son of glory, and my sinnes are gone Like twinkling Starres before the rising Sunne."