Guests can be, and often are, delightful, but they should never be allowed to get the upper hand.

[Walking] is the perfect way of moving if you want to see into the life of things. It is the one way of freedom. If you go to a place on anything but your own feet you are taken there too fast, and miss a thousand delicate joys that were waiting for you by the wayside.

I want to be as idle as I can, so that my soul may have time to grow.

Things were a little untidy, but what did that matter? It was possible to become the slave of things; possible to miss life in preparation for living.

If one believed in angels one would feel that they must love us best when we are asleep and cannot hurt each other; and what a mercy it is that once in every twenty-four hours we are too utterly weary to go on being unkind.

He had the effect on her of a window being thrown open and fresh air and sunlight being let in