Conversation in its happiest development is a link, equally exquisite and adequate, between mind and mind, a system by which men approach one another with sympathy and enjoyment, a field for the finest amenities of civilization, for the keenest and most intelligent display of social activity. It is also our solace, our inspiration, and our most rational pleasure. It is a duty we owe to one another; it is our common debt to humanity.

Just as we are often moved to merriment for no other reason than that the occasion calls for seriousness, so we are correspondingly serious when invited too freely to be amused.

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.

There is always a secret irritation about a laugh in which we cannot join

We cannot hope to scale great moral heights by ignoring petty obligations.

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

History is not written in the interests of morality.