A mother's time is not her own, and charity begins at home.

I'm sure I never seem to be at rest, and yet people are never satisfied.

Lady Burchett says she's certain I am never at home, for she always misses me when she calls; and Mrs.Graham says I never go out, she's sure, for she never meets me anywhere." "Isn't all that just what I say ?" said Major Buller, laying down his knife and fork.

(The discussion took place at dinner.) "It's the tyranny of the idle over the busy; and why, in the name of common sense, should it be yielded to?
Why should friends be obliged, at the peril of disparagement of their affection or good manners, to visit each other when they do not want to go--to receive each other when it is not convenient, and to write to each other when there is nothing to say?
You women, my dear, I must say, are more foolish in this respect than men.
Men simply won't write long letters to their friends when they've nothing to say, and I don't think their friendships suffer by it.

And though there are heaps of idle gossiping fellows, as well as ladies with the same qualities, a man who was busy would never tolerate them to his own inconvenience, much less invite them to persecute him.