Spiritual favors are not always to be looked for, and not always to be relied on.

... if fiction does not show us a better life than reality, what is the good of it?

To take offence is a great folly, and to give offence is a great folly - I know not which is the greater.

Events that are predestined require but little management. They manage themselves. They slip into place while we sleep, and suddenly we are aware that the thing we fear to attempt, is already accomplished.

Mediocrity is always in a rush; but whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing with consideration. For genius is nothing more nor less than doing well what anyone can do badly.

the breed is more than the pasture. As you know, the cuckoo lays her eggs in any bird's nest; it may be hatched among blackbirds or robins or thrushes, but it is always a cuckoo. ... a man cannot deliver himself from his ancestors.

Old age is the verdict of life.