“I have only to add that I shall be as true to you as you have been to me.”

Offering loyalty in return for trust and welcome · Speech, New York, 18 February 1842

• Friendship
• Truth

“Grouped about the little low tables in the centre of the rooms are such tiny convalescents that they seem to be playing at having been ill.”

Capturing the frailty and innocence of recovering children · Speech, Hospital for Sick Children, London, 9 February 1858

• Childhood
• Hope

“I have no means of knowing whether you are patient in the pursuit of this art; but I am inclined to think that you are not, and that you do not discipline yourself enough.”

Treating patience and self-discipline as necessary parts of literary craft · Letter to Emily Jolly, 30 May 1857

• Art
• Truth