It is not what we learn in conversation that enriches us. It is the elation that comes of swift contact with tingling currents of thought.

whereas the dog strives to lessen the distance between himself and man, seeks ever to be intelligent and intelligible, and translates into looks and actions the words he cannot speak, the cat dwells within the circle of her own secret thoughts.

The English possess too many agreeable traits to permit them to be as much disliked as they think and hope they are.

The age of credulity is every age the world has ever known. Men have always turned from the ascertained, which is limited and discouraging, to the dubious, which is unlimited and full of hope for everybody.

For my part, the good novel of character is the novel I can always pick up; but the good novel of incident is the novel I can never lay down.

Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals.

Guests are the delight of leisure, and the solace of ennui.