What does this quote mean?

“Before him, I may think aloud.”

The line describes the relief of a friendship in which thought can be expressed openly before it is polished for public judgment.

Source note: Emerson continues his description of sincerity between friends in the essay Friendship.

“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere.”

Friendship permits unusual honesty because the relationship is secure enough to hold unguarded thought without constant performance.

Source note: In Friendship, Emerson names truth as one of the sovereign elements of the relationship.

“Lie not one to another.”

The short instruction makes honesty a basic requirement of life with other people.

Source note: Colossians 3:9 in the King James Version; the opening command is quoted here.

“At ev'ry word a reputation dies.”

Pope compresses the destructive speed of fashionable gossip into a comic line about reputations being damaged in ordinary conversation.

Source note: The Rape of the Lock, Canto III; the line occurs in a satirical description of fashionable social talk rather than as literal reportage.

“In all you speak, let truth and candor shine.”

Pope treats candor as part of good judgment: accurate criticism should also be spoken with integrity and fairness.

Source note: An Essay on Criticism, in the section describing the moral duties of a critic.

“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.”

Wentworth’s letter holds pain and possibility together: the renewed declaration is intense because he still does not know whether Anne’s feelings have survived their long separation.

Source note: Persuasion, Chapter XXIII, Project Gutenberg #105. Captain Frederick Wentworth writes the line to Anne Elliot while listening to her conversation with Captain Harville; the letter is signed “F. W.” and is fictional character writing, not Austen autobiography.