It is a comfortable feeling to know that you stand on your own ground. Land is about the only thing that can't fly away.

This habit of reading, I make bold to tell you, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures. It lasts when all other pleasures fade. It will support you when all other recreations are gone. It will last until your death. It will make your hours pleasant to you as long as you live.

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.

I doubt whether I ever read any description of scenery which gave me an idea of the place described.

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

I cannot hold with those who wish to put down the insignificant chatter of the world.

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.