I foresee that the Andersen and Fairy Tale fashion will not last; none of these things away from general nature do.

Well, great authors are great people – but I believe that they are best seen at a distance.

I do not think very highly of Madame D’Arblay’s books. The style is so strutting. She does so stalk about on Dr. Johnson’s old stilts.

That bad letters of every kind arise from want of the habit of thinking, I cannot doubt.

In our present high state of civilization, people are so much alike, that anything at all odd comes on one with the freshness and character of an antique coin among smooth shillings.

A novel should be as like life as a painting, but not as like life as a piece of waxwork.

To think of playing cricket for hard cash! Money and gentility would ruin any pastime under the sun.

I have had a great misfortune; my dear old dog is dead.

No fear of forgetting the good-humoured faces that meet us in our walks each day.

I have still the best comforts of life – books and friendships – and I trust never to lose my relish for either.