E. Nesbit

It's an odd thing- the softer and more easily hurt a woman is the better she can screw herself up to do what has to be done.

There is nothing more luxurious than eating while you read__nless it be reading while you eat. Amabel did both: they are not the same thing, as you will see if you think the matter over.

I never read prefaces, and it is not much good writing things just for people to skip. I wonder other authors have never thought of this.

What a night it was! The jagged masses of heavy dark cloud were rolling at intervals from horizon to horizon, and thin white wreaths covered the stars. Through all the rush of the cloud river the moon swam, breasting the waves and disappearing again in the darkness.I walked up and down, drinking in the beauty of the quiet earth and the changing sky. The night was absolutely silent. Nothing seemed to be abroad. There was no scurrying of rabbits, or twitter of the half-asleep birds. And though the clouds went sailing across the sky, the wind that drove them never came low enough to rustle the dead leaves in the woodland paths. Across the meadows I could see the church tower standing out black and grey against the sky. ("Man Size In Marble")

It's not respectable,' she said. And when people say that, it's no useanyone's saying anything.