My garden, with its silence and pulses of fragrance that come and go on the airy undulations, affects me like sweet music. Care stops at the gates, and gazes at me wistfully through the bars.

One never hugs one's good luck so affectionately as when listening to the relation of some horrible misfortunes which has overtaken others.

Not on the stage alone, in the world also, a man's real character comes out best in his asides.

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

I would rather be remembered by a song than by a victory.

It is the sternest philosophy, but on the whole the truest, that, in the wide arena of the world, failure and success are not accidents, as we so frequently suppose, but the strictest justice.

To sit for one's portrait is like being present at one's own creation.