"To be privileged to put my arms round what I value — to press my lips to what I love — …is that to make a sacrifice? If so, then certainly I delight in sacrifice."
"Reserved people often really need the frank discussion of their sentiments and griefs more than the expansive. The sternest-seeming stoic is human after all…"
"And now I thought; till now I had only heard, seen, moved — followed up and down where I was led or dragged — watched event rush on event, disclosure open beyond disclosure; but now I thought."
"Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless? …And if God had gifted me with some beauty, and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you."
"Presentiments are strange things! and so are sympathies, and so are signs; and the three combined make one mystery to which humanity has not yet found the key."
"Ere long I had reason to congratulate myself on the course of wholesome discipline to which I had thus forced my feelings to submit; thanks to it, I was able to meet subsequent occurrences with a decent calm; which, had they found me unprepared, I should, probably, have been unequal to maintain even externally."