“I think the lesson we can learn from our newsman is some new illustration of the uncertainty of life, some illustration of its vicissitudes and fluctuations.”

Using an everyday occupation to reflect on life's instability · Speech, London, 20 May 1862

• Mortality
• Time

“He may never write plays; but the truth and passion which are in him must be more or less reflected in the great mirror which he holds up to nature.”

Describing art as a reflection of the artist's truth and passion · Speech, London, 29 March 1858

• Art
• Nature
• Truth

“To have established such relations with readers of my books is a great happiness to me, and one that I hope never to forfeit by being otherwise than manfully and truly in earnest in my vocation.”

Valuing readers' trust as something that must be earned through sincerity · Letter to R. M. Ross, 19 February 1866

• Art
• Friendship