if i could be assured of your destruction, i would in the interest of the public, cheerfully accept my death.

The fair sex is your department.

Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason, that he has been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else.

Sir Walter, with his 61 years of life, although he never wrote a novel until he was over 40, had, fortunately for the world, a longer working career than most of his brethren.

There are always some lunatics about. It would be a dull world without them.

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

What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence. The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done?