Laughing is not the first expression of joy. ... A person laughs in idleness, for fun, not for joy. Joy has nothing, nothing but the old way of tears. — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
“She did not move, except now and then to put up her hand and dry the moisture which collected slowly under her eyelids. It could not be called tears. It was that extorted dew of pain which comes when the… — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
What happiness is there which is not purchased with more or less of pain? — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
I think reading a novel is almost next best to having something to do. — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
Married people do stand up so for each other when you say a word, however they may fight between themselves. — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
“Don’t you think a certain amount of civilisation is necessary before picture-frames will become remunerative? I don’t think you could live by them in… — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
there are some people who never learn; indeed, few people learn by experience, so far as I have ever seen. — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
As for pictures and museums, that don't trouble me. The worst of going abroad is that you've always got to look at things of… — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
“The village lay in the hollow, and climbed, with very prosaic houses, the other side. Village architecture does not flourish in Scotland. The blue… — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
Next to happiness, perhaps enmity is the most healthful stimulant of the human mind. — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
“And there has been no attempt to investigate it,' I said, 'to see what it really is?' 'Eh, Cornel,' said the coachman's wife, 'wha… — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
To have a man who can flirt is next thing to indispensable to a leader of society. — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
For everybody knows that it requires very little to satisfy the gentlemen, if a woman will only give her mind to it. — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
The ideal is the flower-garden of the mind, and very apt to run to weeds unless carefully tended. — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
Laughing is not the first expression of joy. ... A person laughs in idleness, for fun, not for joy. Joy has nothing, nothing but… — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
“It was getting dark by the time I went out, and nobody who knows the country will need to be told how black is… — Margaret Oliphant Copy Share Image
