It is decreed by a merciful Nature that the human brain cannot think of two things simultaneously . . .

It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.

…but it is better to learn wisdom late than never to learn it at all.

My uncle, Mr. Stephen Maple, had been at the same time the most successful and the least respectable of our family, so that we hardly knew whether to take credit for his wealth or to feel ashamed of his position.

But love is an emotional thing, and whatever is emotional is opposed to that true cold reason which I place above all things.

I have taken to living by my wits.

The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime, the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive.