Everybody said so. Far be it from me to assert that what everybody says must be true. Everybody is, often, as likely to be wrong as right.

‎And yet I have had the weakness, and have still the weakness, to wish you to know with what a sudden mastery you kindled me, heap of ashes that I am, into fire.

To close the eyes, and give a seemly comfort to the apparel of the dead, is poverty's holiest touch of nature.

Do the wise thing and the kind thing too, and make the best of us and not the worst.

My hair stands on end at the cost and charges of these boys. Why was I ever a father! Why was my father ever a father!

I don't feel any vulgar gratitude to you[for helping me]. I almost feel as if You ought to be grateful to ME, for giving you the opportunity of enjoying the luxury of generosity. . . I may have come into the world expressly for the purpose of increasing your stock of happiness. I may have been born to be a benefactor to you, by giving you an opportunity of assisting me.

I am not old, but my young way was never the way to age.