It is not the office of a novelist to show us how to behave ourselves; it is not the business of fiction to teach us anything.

the labors of the true critic are more essential to the author, even, than to the reader.

It is not easy to find happiness in ourselves, and it is not possible to find it elsewhere.

A man who listens because he has nothing to say can hardly be a source of inspiration. The only listening that counts is that of the talker who alternately absorbs and expresses ideas.

A dead grief is easier to bear than a live trouble.

The least practical of us have some petty thrift dear to our hearts, some one direction in which we love to scrimp.

to be civilized is to be incapable of giving unnecessary offense, it is to have some quality of consideration for all who cross our path.