Doubtless a great anguish may do the work of years, and we may come out from that baptism of fire with a soul… — George Eliot

It was the last weakness he meant to indulge in; and a man never lies with more delicious languor under the influence of a passion than when he has persuaded himself that he shall subdue it to-morrow.

How is it that the poets have said so many fine things about our first love, so few about our later love? Are their first poems their best? Or are not those the best which come from their fuller thought, their larger experience, their deeper-rooted affections?

People who love downy peaches are apt not to think of the stone, and sometimes jar their teeth terribly against it.