He possessed the rare merit of making a property of his time and not a burden.

What on earth could be more luxurious than a sofa, a book, and a cup of coffee?...Was ever anything so civil?

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.

Life is so unlike theory.

The habit of writing clearly soon comes to the writer who is a severe critic to himself.

There is no way of writing well and also of writing easily.

It is hard to rescue a man from the slough of luxury and idleness combined. If anything can do it, it is a cradle filled annually.