Women are more frequently charming than men, because they are less self-conscious. - Alfred Austin

People living and dead, things past and present, all are contributories to that diminutive stream, oneself; a reflection which is essentially consoling, since it associates one with the sum of things and prevents one from living in barren isolation.

[T]he charm of a half-neglected old garden arises from its having, once upon a time, not been neglected.

He was an Englishman of Englishmen, of the old school of charming manners, flavoured by occasional downrightness of speech.