Poverty, to be picturesque, should be rural. Suburban misery is as hideous as it is pitiable.

Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.

A physician should take his fee without letting his left hand know what his right is doing; it should be taken without a thought, without a look, without a move of the facial muscles; the true physician should hardly be aware that the last friendly grasp of the hand has been made more precious by the touch of gold

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.

This at least should be a rule through the letter-writing world: that no angry letter be posted till four-and-twenty hours will have elapsed since it was written.

I do not think myself to be a worm, and a grub, grass of the field fit only to be burned, a clod, a morsel of putrid atoms that should be thrown to the dungheap, ready for the nethermost pit. Nor if I did should I therefore expect to sit with Angels and Archangels.

There is no human bliss equal to twelve hours of work with only six hours in which to do it.