... up to this date, I have never been shut up in a separate room, or hedged off with any observances. My study, all the study I have attained to, is the little 2nd drawing room where all the (feminine) life of the house goes on; and I don't think I have ever had two hours undisturbed (except at night, when everybody is in bed) during my whole literary life.

Margaret Oliphant

Categorized in : Thinking Two Night

It is so seldom in this world that things come just when they are wanted.

Margaret Oliphant

timing this-world world

Temptations come, as a general rule, when they are sought.

Margaret Oliphant

self-help temptation inspirational

One only says it is one's duty when one has something disagreeable to do.

Margaret Oliphant

disagreeable duty

there are some people who never learn; indeed, few people learn by experience, so far as I have ever seen.

Margaret Oliphant

experience people

To have a man who can flirt is next thing to indispensable to a leader of society.

Margaret Oliphant

flirty flirting men

Oh, never mind the fashion. When one has a style of one's own, it is always twenty times better.

Margaret Oliphant

being-yourself style fashion

I think reading a novel is almost next best to having something to do.

Margaret Oliphant

next reading thinking

The middle of life is the testing-ground of character and strength.

Margaret Oliphant

middle life-is character

It is often easier to justify one's self to others than to respond to the secret doubts that arise in one's own bosom.

Margaret Oliphant

self secret doubt

Laughing is not the first expression of joy. ... A person laughs in idleness, for fun, not for joy. Joy has nothing, nothing but the old way of tears.

Margaret Oliphant

expression fun laughing

Good works may only be beautiful sins, if they are not done in a true spirit.

Margaret Oliphant

done kindness beautiful

The ideal is the flower-garden of the mind, and very apt to run to weeds unless carefully tended.

Margaret Oliphant

weed flower running

I have my own way of dividing people, as I suppose most of us have. There are those whom I can talk to, and those whom I can't.

Margaret Oliphant

dividing people way

All perfection is melancholy.

Margaret Oliphant

melancholy perfection

Imagination is the first faculty wanting in those that do harm to their kind.

Margaret Oliphant

compassion imagination firsts

There's looks as speaks as strong as words.

Margaret Oliphant

strong speak looks

Somehow even a popular fallacy has an aspect of truth when it suits one's own case.

Margaret Oliphant

suits cases truth

There is nothing so costly as bargains.

Margaret Oliphant

shopping bargains

Many love me, but by none am I enough beloved.

Margaret Oliphant

beloved enough

Spring cold is like the poverty of a poor man who has had a fortune left him - better days are coming.

Margaret Oliphant

poverty spring men