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

What man thinks of changing himself so as to suit his wife?

Passionate love, I take it, rarely lasts long, and is very troublesome while it does last. Mutual esteem is very much more valuable.

I have no ambition to surprise my reader. Castles with unknown passages are not compatible with my homely muse.

A fellow oughtn't to let his family property go to pieces.

To feel that your hours are filled to overflowing, that you can barely steal minutes enough for sleep, that the welfare of many is entrusted to you, that the world looks on and approves, that some good is always being done to others -- above all things some good to your country; -- that is happiness.

But then the pastors and men of God can only be human,--cannot altogether be men of God; and so they have oppressed us, and burned us, and tortured us, and hence come to love palaces, and fine linen, and purple, and, alas, sometimes, mere luxury and idleness.