If she had been a few years younger, what a fool she would have made of me, had she thought it worth her while.
If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad.
If I could always read, I should never feel the want of society.
If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom.
I would rather… have a nod from an American, than a snuff-box from an emperor.
I should be very willing to redress men’s wrongs, and rather check than punish crimes, had not Cervantes, in that too true tale of Quixote, shown how all such efforts fail.
I only go out to get me a fresh appetite for being alone.
I live not in myself, but I become portion of that around me; and to me, high mountains are a feeling, but the hum of human cities torture.
I know that two and two make four – and should be glad to prove it too if I could – though I must say if by any sort of process I could convert 2 and 2 into five it would give me much greater pleasure.
I have no consistency, except in politics; and that probably arises from my indifference to the subject altogether.
I have great hopes that we shall love each other all our lives as much as if we had never married at all.
I have always believed that all things depended upon Fortune and nothing upon ourselves.
