... though mathematics may teach a man how to build a bridge, it is what the Scotch Universities call the humanities, that teach him to be civil and sweet-tempered.

Once suspicion is aroused, every thing feeds it.

It is only in sorrow bad weather masters us; in joy we face the storm and defy it.

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.

if a thing is to be done, there is no time like the hour that has not struck.

The great difference between voyages rests not with the ships, but with the people you meet on them.

... money trials are not the hardest, and somehow or other, they are always overcome.