“There is no happiness in love, except at the end of an English novel.”

“Romance is very pretty in novels, but the romance of a life is always a melancholy matter. They are most happy who have no story to tell.”

“The more she was absolutely in need of external friendship, the more disposed was she to reject it, and to declare to herself that she was prepared to stand alone in the world.”

“Wars about trifles are always bitter, especially among neighbours. When the differences are great, and the parties comparative strangers, men quarrel with courtesy. What combatants are ever so eage...”

“There is, perhaps, no greater hardship at present inflicted on mankind in civilised and free countries than the necessity of listening to sermons.”

“A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labours of a spasmodic Hercules.”

“There are two types of seeds in the mind: those that create anger, fear, frustration, jealousy, hatred and those that create love, compassion, equanimity and joy. Spirituality is germination and sp...”

“My music teacher offered twittering madrigals and something about how, in Italy, in Italy, the oranges hang on the tree. He treated me - the humiliation of it - as a soprano.These, by contrast, are...”

“If you spend your time hoping someone will suffer the consequences for what they did to your heart, then you're allowing them to hurt you a second time in your mind.”

“A low voice is an excellent thing in woman.”

“Music inflames temperament.”

“The first draught serveth for health the second for pleasure the third for shame and the fourth for madness.”

“Every moderate drinker could abandon the intoxicating cup if he would every inebriate would if he could.”

“Drinking water neither makes a man sick nor in debt nor his wife a widow.”