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Under mot sidste besøg i Norge følte jeg en stærk lyst til at besøge Skien og da navnlig min slægt; men jeg følte også en stærk utilbøjelighed til at komme i nærmere berørelse med visse dersteds herskende åndsretninger, som jeg sletikke føler mig beslægted med, og med hvilke et sammenstød let kunde have fremkaldt ubehageligheder eller ialfald en misstemning, som jeg helst vilde undgå. [...] De forholde, jeg her [dvs. München] lever under er langt gunstigere; det er den store verdens forholde med åndsfrihed og med et vidt syn på tingene.

[...], og tillad mig dernæst at samtidigt hermed at sende Dem [dvs. Elise Aubert] et exemplar af min nye bog [dvs. Samfundets støtter], som jeg gærne vilde at netop De skulde have adgang til at læse forinden den falder i mængdens klør. Jeg har søgt at holde den tilbage så længe som muligt; thi hvergang jeg skal give et ny arbejde i boghandelen har jeg en fornemmelse, lig den jeg kan tænke mig må ytre sig hos forældre, der skal gifte en datter bort; der er som en art skinsyge deri; man synes ikke at man fuldt ud ejer, hvad man ikke længer ejer ganske alene.

Mr Jorkins was not by any means the awful creature one might have expected, but a large, mild, smooth-faced man of sixty, who took so much snuff that there was a tradition in the Commons that he lived principally on that stimulant, having little room in his system for any other article of diet.

Er nød påfærde, - nogen forulykket?
Nej, ingenlunde. Alting går sin gang, -
men uden håb og mod, og uden sang.
Og hvorfor? Jo, fordi en lønlig tvivl,
et rygte sniger sig foruden hvil
fra forlugaren og til agtermasten:
De tror de sejler med et lig i lasten.

Kræv ikke, ven, at jeg skal gåde klare;
jeg spørger helst; mit kald er ej at svare.

I had loved her every minute, day and night, since I first saw her. I loved her at that ninute to distraction. I should always love her every minute, to distraction. Lovers had loved before, and lovers would love again; but no lover had ever loved, might, could, would, or should ever love, as I loved Dora. The more I raved, the more Jip barked. Each of us, in his own way, got more mad every moment.

Above all, one hideous figure grew as familiar as if it had been before the general gaze from the foundations of the world - the figure of the sharp female called La Guillotine.

It was the popular theme for jests; it was the best cure for headache, it infallibly prevented hair from turning gray, it imparted a peculiar delicacy to the complexion, it was the National Razor which shaved close: who kissed La Guillotine looked through the little window and sneezed into the sack. It was the sign of the regeneration of the human race. It superseded the Cross. Models of it were worn on breasts from which the Cross was discarded, and it was bowed down to and believed in where the Cross was denied.

I hardly knew what I did, I was burning all over to that extraordinary extent; but I took Dora's little hand and kissed it - and she let me! I kissed Miss Mills's hand; and we all seemed, to my thinking, to go straight up to the seventh heaven.

We did not come down again. We stayed up there all the evening. At first we strayed to and fro among the trees: I with Dora's shy arm drawn through mine: and Heaven knows, folly as it all was, it would have been a happy fate to have been struck immortal with those foolish feelings, and have stayed among the trees for ever!

When beginning Great Expecations, Dickens wrote to Forster that he had just reread David Copperfield, and was 'affected by it to a degree you would hardly believe.'

Kære ven, liberalisterne er frihedens værste fiender. Under absolutismen trives åndsfriheden og tankefriheden bedst; det viste sig i Frankrig, senere i Tyskland og nu i Rusland.

Skulde det ikke være gørligt at få en tidsmæssig lovgivning i literære sager hjemme? Loven beskytter laxen i vore elve og vildtet på fjeldeme; forfatterne derimot synes man at sætte i klasse med rovdyrene; man gør sit bedste for at udryde dem.