It is a grand thing to rise in the world. The ambition to do so is the very salt of the earth. It is the parent of all enterprise, and the cause of all improvement.

Though they were Liberals they were not democrats; nor yet infidels.

Words spoken cannot be recalled, and many a man and many a woman who has spoken a word at once regretted, are far too proud to express that regret.

Men who can succeed in deceiving no one else, will succeed at last in deceiving themselves.

When I sit down to write a novel I do not at all know, and I do not very much care, how it is to end.

A farmer's horse is never lame, never unfit to go. Never throws out curbs, never breaks down before or behind. Like his master he is never showy. He does not paw and prance, and arch his neck, and bid the world admire his beauties...and when he is wanted, he can always do his work.

Romance is very pretty in novels, but the romance of a life is always a melancholy matter. They are most happy who have no story to tell.