Imagination is the first faculty wanting in those that do harm to their kind.

- Margaret Oliphant

Oh, never mind the fashion. When one has a style of one's own, it is always twenty times better.

- Margaret Oliphant

One only says it is one's duty when one has something disagreeable to do.

- Margaret Oliphant

The middle of life is the testing-ground of character and strength.

- Margaret Oliphant

It is so seldom in this world that things come just when they are wanted.

- Margaret Oliphant

I have my own way of dividing people, as I suppose most of us have. There are those whom I can talk to, and those whom I can't.

- Margaret Oliphant

there are some people who never learn; indeed, few people learn by experience, so far as I have ever seen.

- Margaret Oliphant

every generation has a conceit of itself which elevates it, in its own opinion, above that which comes after it.

- Margaret Oliphant

The ideal is the flower-garden of the mind, and very apt to run to weeds unless carefully tended.

- Margaret Oliphant