Simple ignorance has in its time been complimented by the names of most of the vices, and of all the virtues.

Some persons, instead of making a religion for their God, are content to make a god of their religion.

A mixture of admiration and pity is one of the surest recipes for affection.

If you would understand your own age, read the works of fiction produced in it. People in disguise speak freely.

There is one statesman of the present day, of whom I always say that he would have escaped making the blunders that he has made if he had only ridden more in buses.

No doubt hard work is a great police agent. If everybody were worked from morning till night, and then carefully locked up, the register of crime might be greatly diminished. But what would become of human nature? Where would be the room for growth in such a system of things? It is through sorrow and mirth, plenty and need, a variety of passions, circumstances, and temptations, even through sin and misery, that men's natures are developed.

The man who could withstand, with his fellow-men in single line, a charge of cavalry may lose all command of himself on the occurrence of a fire in his own house, because of some homely reminiscence unknown to the observing bystander.