“It must be confessed that though, as a rule, we know very little of heaven, our experience of hell is pretty considerable.”

A darkly witty reflection on how familiar suffering is to human experience · Lecture, Shelley's View of Nature Contrasted with Darwin's (1886)

• Despair
• Mortality

“I shall not easily forget a walk through the grounds on one of those tender misty February days when there is a stir and quiver of song in every tree.”

Remembering a landscape where mist, trees and birdsong heightened a sense of mystery · Letter to Mrs Wolfsohn, quoted in Richard Garnett's Memoir (1900)

• Beauty
• Memory
• Nature

“By his enthusiastic belief in her he gave her the only thing she wanted—a thorough belief in herself.”

Recognising how another person's faith can awaken confidence and creative power · Biography, George Eliot (1883)

• Art
• Hope
• Love