"Nothing in this world is hidden forever. The gold which has lain for centuries unsuspected in the ground, reveals itself one day on the surface. Sand turns traitor, and betrays the footstep that has p..."
- Wilkie Collins
"I say what other people only think, and when all the rest of the world is in a conspiracy to accept the mask for the true face, mine is the rash hand that tears off the plump pasteboard, and shows the..."
"I have always held the old-fashioned opinion that the primary object of work of fiction should be to tell a story."
"The books—the generous friends who met me without suspicion—the merciful masters who never used me ill! The only years of my life that I can look back on with something like pride... Early and late, t..."
"Men, being accustomed to act on reflection themselves, are a great deal too apt to believe that women act on reflection, too. Women do nothing of the sort. They act on impulse; and, in nine cases out ..."
"The books - the generous friends who met me without suspicion - the merciful masters who never used me ill!"
"It is not for you to say - you Englishmen, who have conquered your freedom so long ago, that you have conveniently forgotten what blood you shed, and what extremities you proceeded to in the conquerin..."
"Any woman who is sure of her own wits, is a match, at any time, for a man who is not sure of his own temper."
"No sensible man ever engages, unprepared, in a fencing match of words with a woman."
"You musn't talk of a young lady *belonging* to anybody, as if she was a piece of furniture, or money in the Three per Cent, or something of that sort."