The diseases of the present have little in common with the diseases of the past save that we die of them.

By providing cheap and wholesome reading for the young, we have partly succeeded in driving from the field that which was positively bad; yet nothing is easier than to overdo a reformation, and, through the characteristic indulgence of American parents, children are drugged with a literature whose chief merit is its harmlessness.

Woman is quick to revere genius, but in her secret soul she seldom loves it.

When the milk of human kindness turns sour, it is a singularly unpalatable draught.

There are people who balk at small civilities on account of their manifest insincerity. ... It is better and more logical to accept all the polite phraseology which facilitates intercourse, and contributes to the sweetness of life. If we discarded the formal falsehoods which are the currency of conversation, we should not be one step nearer the vital things of truth.

It is impossible for a lover of cats to banish these alert, gentle, and discriminating friends, who give us just enough of their regard and complaisance to make us hunger for more.

It is difficult to admonish Frenchmen. Their habit of mind is unfavorable to preachment.