Hannah More

"The keen spirit Seizes the prompt occasion, makes the thought Start into instant action, and at once Plans and performs, resolves and executes!"

"A crown! what is it?"

"... There's a joy, To the fond votaries of fame unknown, To hear the still small voice of conscience speak In whisp'ring plaudit to the silent soul."

"To those who know thee not, no words can paint! And those who know thee, know all words are faint!"

"Since trifles make the sum of human things, And half our misery from our foibles springs."

"In men this blunder still you find,— All think their little set mankind."

"Small habits well pursued betimes May reach the dignity of crimes."

"That silence is one of the great arts of conversation is allowed by Cicero himself, who says, there is not only an art, but even an eloquence in it."

"Hannah More was one of the last of the group of learned ladies who had known Johnson, though Madame d'Arblay survived her for some years. Her writings have the old-fashioned flavour of the eighteenth century; while they now represent the teaching of the evangelical school, which looked up to Newton and Cecil, and of which William Wilberforce and his friends were the recognised political and social leaders. Though now out of fashion, they show not only high moral and religious purpose, but strong sense, as well as considerable intellectual vivacity. If their author showed a little self-complacency, the wonder is that her strong sense kept her from being spoilt by the uniform flattery poured upon her by her contemporaries. Her services to education at a time of general indifference deserve the highest praise, though her decided desire to keep the poor in their place is now out of fashion. In private life she seems to have been thoroughly amiable, kind to children, and as playful as her conscience would allow."