“If any such point out to us our follies, we at once claim those follies as the special evidence of our wisdom.”

But as we do not light up our houses with our brightest lamps for all comers, so neither did she emit from her eyes their brightest sparks till special occasions for such shining had arisen.

Words spoken cannot be recalled, and many a man and many a woman who has spoken a word at once regretted, are far too proud to express that regret.

Power is so pleasant that men quickly learn to be greedy in the enjoyment of it, and to flatter themselves that patriotism requires them to be imperious.

Of course, Lady Arabella could not suckle the young heir herself. Ladies Arabella never can.

There are words which a man cannot resist from a woman, even though he knows them to be false.

I cannot hold with those who wish to put down the insignificant chatter of the world.

There are worse things than a lie… I have found… that it may be well to choose one sin in order that another may be shunned.

Fortune favors the brave; and the world certainly gives the most credit to those who are able to give an unlimited credit to themselves.

Don’t let love interfere with your appetite. It never does with mine.

I have no ambition to surprise my reader. Castles with unknown passages are not compatible with my homely muse.

The habit of writing clearly soon comes to the writer who is a severe critic to himself.

It is a comfortable feeling to know that you stand on your own ground. Land is about the only thing that can’t fly away.

But mad people never die. That’s a well-known fact. They’ve nothing to trouble them, and they live for ever.

It has now become the doctrine of a large clan of politicians that political honesty is unnecessary, slow, subversive of a man’s interests, and incompatible with quick onward movement.

There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art.

I ain’t a bit ashamed of anything.

Many people can rightfully claim, as much as anyone can rightfully claim anything, that much of their lives have been spent stumbling through a cloud of cluelessness.

Riches do not constitute any claim to distinction. It is only the vulgar who admire riches as riches.

I will not allow the light to blind me, not when even the darkness couldn’t claim me.

Claiming certainty without corroborating evidence is stupid.

I resolved to claim for my sex all that an impartial Creator had bestowed, which, by custom and a perverted application of the Scriptures, had been wrested from woman.

We, we live! ours are the hours, and the living have their claims.

How you look is your statement, because it’s a claiming of yourself.

Owning our power means claiming the credibility and uniqueness of our own humanity.