To every man it is decreed: Thou shalt live alone. Happy they who imagine that they have escaped the common lot; happy, whilst they imagine it..

It is familiarity with life that makes time speed quickly. When every day is a step in the unknown, as for children, the days are long with gathering….

The mind which renounces, once and for ever, a futile hope, has its compensation in ever-growing calm..

Have the courage of your desire..

That is one of the bitter curses of poverty; it leaves no right to be generous..

Life is a huge farce, and the advantage of possessing a sense of humour is that it enables one to defy fate with mocking laughter..

It is the mind which creates the world around us, and even though we stand side by side in the same meadow, my eyes will never see what is beheld by ….

Human creatures have a mervellous power of adapting themselves to necessity..

One of the shining moments of my day is that when, having returned a little weary from an afternoon walk, I exchange boots for slippers, out-of-doors….

It is our duty never to speak ill of others, you know; least of all when we know that to do so will be the cause of much pain and trouble..

In nothing more is the English genius for domesticity more notably declared than in the institution of this festival-almost one may call it-of aftern….

Honest winter, snow clad and with the frosted beard, I can welcome not uncordially; but that long deferment of the calendar's promise, that weeping l….

How I envy those clerks who go by to their offices in the morning! There's the day's work cut out for them; no question of mood and feeling; they hav….

The truths of life are not discovered by us. At moments unforeseen, some gracious influence descends upon the soul, touching it to an emotion which, ….

To like Keats is a test of fitness for understanding poetry, just as to like Shakespeare is a test of general mental capacity..

I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things..

I have the happiness of a passing moment, and what more can mortal ask?.

Life, I fancy, would very often be insupportable, but for the luxury of self compassion..

For one thing, I know every book of mine by its scent..

Parks are but pavement disguised with a growth of grass..

I hate and fear 'science' because of my conviction that, for long to come if not for ever, it will be the remorseless enemy of mankind. I see it dest….