For there is no folly so great as keeping one's sorrows hidden.

Little bits of things make me do it; — perhaps a word that I said and ought not to have said ten years ago; — the most ordinary little mistakes, even my own past thoughts to myself about the merest trifles. They are always making me shiver.

When a man is ill nothing is so important to him as his own illness.

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

The law is a great thing,--because men are poor and weak, and bad. And it is great, because where it exists in its strength, no tyrant can be above it. But between you and me there should be no mention of law as the guide of conduct. Speak to me of honour, and of duty, and of nobility; and tell me what they require of you.

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.

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