“I am not unhappy, on the contrary, I enjoy everything; and if my head be not turned by the large draughts which my vanity is daily quaffing, I shall return to Norwich much happier than I left it.”

Self-mocking delight in society and the pleasures of being admired · Letter to Mrs Taylor, 1797

• Fame
• Joy

“It so overpowered me, that I could not read it through at first, and wept because the eye it would most have pleased, would not see it.”

Literary praise becomes poignant because a beloved witness was no longer alive · Remark on Southey's Colloquies, 1829

• Art
• Death
• Memory

“It is grievous to make acquaintances with people, learn to love and admire them, and then bid them farewell for ever!”

The sadness of friendship made transient by distance and mortality · Private note, 12 July 1843

• Death
• Friendship