"My dear young lady,' said her distinguished friend, 'isn't "to live" exactly what I'm trying to persuade you to take the trouble to do?" - Henry James

Besides, he was a philosopher; he smoked a good many cigars over his disappointment, and in the
fulness of time he got used to it.

...and the great advantage of being a literary woman, was that you could go everywhere and do everything.

It was as if, at moments, we were perpetually coming into sight of subjects before which we must stop short, turning suddenly out of alleys that we perceived to be blind, closing with a little bang that made us look at each other — for, like all bangs, it was something louder than we had intended— the doors we had indiscreetly opened.