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.

Speaking of New York as a traveller I have two faults to find with it. In the first place there is nothing to see; and in the second place there is no mode of getting about to see anything.

Of course, Lady Arabella could not suckle the young heir herself. Ladies Arabella never can. They are gifted with the powers of being mothers, but not nursing mothers. Nature gives them bosoms for show, but not for use. So Lady Arabella had a wet-nurse.

It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution.

There are some achievements which are never done in the presence of those who hear of them. Catching salmon is one, and working all night is another.

I hold that gentleman to be the best-dressed whose dress no one observes.

Above all else, never think you're not good enough.