Almost all human affairs are tedious. Everything is too long. Visits, dinners, concerts, plays, speeches, pleadings, essays, sermons, are too long. Pleasure and business labor equally under this defect, or, as I should rather say, this fatal super-abundance.

Any one who is much talked of be much maligned. This seems to be a harsh conclusion; but when you consider how much more given men are to depreciate than to appreciate, you will acknowledge that there is some truth in the saying.

Extremely foolish advice is likely to be uttered by those who are looking at the laboring vessel from the land.

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

I do not know any way so sure of making others happy as of being so oneself, to begin with.

Do not shun this maxim because it is common-place. On the contrary, take the closest heed of what observant men, who would probably like to show originality, are yet constrained to repeat. Therein lies the marrow of the wisdom of the world.

What a blessing this smoking is! Perhaps the greatest that we owe to the discovery of America.