"How little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue."

"An artist cannot do anything slovenly."

"What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance."

"We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of a man; but this would be nothing if you really liked him."

"But when a young lady is to be a heroine, the perverseness of forty surrounding families cannot prevent her. Something must and will happen to throw a hero in her way."

"I pay very little regard...to what any young person says on the subject of marriage. If they profess a disinclination for it, I only set it down that they have not yet seen the right person."

"Every man is thoroughly happy twice in his life: just after he has met his first love, and just after he has left his last one."

"God is not a cosmic bellboy for whom we can press a button to get things done."

"He who marries a widow will often have a dead man's head thrown in his dish."

"A poor fool indeed is he who adopts a manner of thinking (meant) for others!"

"Outside show is a poor substitution for inner worth."

"History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between."