There is virtue in country houses, in gardens and orchards, in fields, streams and groves, in rustic recreations and plain manners, that neither cities nor universities enjoy.

Our bravest and best lessons are not learned through success, but through misadventure.

Yet the deepest truths are best read between the lines, and, for the most part, refuse to be written.

My favorite books have a personality and complexion as distinctly drawn as if the author's portrait were framed into the paragraphs and smiled upon me as I read his illustrated pages.

The traveled mind is the catholic mind educated from exclusiveness and egotism.

Books are the most mannerly of companions, accessible at all times, in all moods, frankly declaring the author's mind, without offense.

Ideas in the head set hands about their several tasks.