Next to the joy of the egotist is the joy of the detractor.

The choice of a topic which will bear analysis and support enthusiasm, is essential to the enjoyment of conversation.

Edged tools are dangerous things to handle, and not infrequently do much hurt.

Miserliness is the one vice that grows stronger with increasing years. It yields its sordid pleasures to the end.

Cats, even when robust, have scant liking for the boisterous society of children, and are apt to exert their utmost ingenuity to escape it. Nor are they without adult sympathy in their prejudice.

Wit is as infinite as love, and a deal more lasting in its qualities.

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.