To bring the best human qualities to anything like perfection, to fill them with the sweet juices of courtesy and charity, prosperity, or, at all events, a moderate amount of it, is required,--just as sunshine is needed for the ripening of peaches and apricots.

We are never happy; we can only remember that we were so once.

Christmas is the day that holds all time together.

God has thickly strewn infinity with grandeur.

Stirling, like a huge brooch, clasps Highlands and Lowlands together.

An old novel has a history of its own.

Death, which we are accustomed to consider an evil, really acts for us the friendliest part, and takes away the commonplace of existence.