“ Never talk for half a minute without pausing and giving others a chance to join in. ”
The main question to a novel is -- did it amuse? were you surprised at dinner coming so soon? did you mistake eleven for ten? were you too late to dress? and did you sit up beyond the usual hour? If a novel produces these effects, it is good; if it does not -- story, language, love, scandal itself cannot save it. It is only meant to please; and it must do that or it does nothing.
~ Sydney Smith
No furniture is so charming as books.
Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship.
The fact is that in order to do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand shivering on the bank thinking of the cold and the danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.
