It has been my fate in a long life of production to be credited chiefly with the equivocal virtue of industry, a quality so excellent in morals, so little satisfactory in art. – Margaret Oliphant
What happiness is there which is not purchased with more or less of pain? – Margaret Oliphant
To have a man who can flirt is next thing to indispensable to a leader of society. – Margaret Oliphant
Temptations come, as a general rule, when they are sought. – Margaret Oliphant
The sky was dark and gloomy, the air was damp and raw, the streets were wet and sloppy. The smoke hung sluggishly above the chimney-tops as if it lacked the courage to rise, and the rain came slowly and doggedly down, as if it had not even the spirit to pour. – Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers