You want to hate somebody, if you can, just to keep your powers of discrimination bright, and to save yourself from becoming a mere mush of good-nature.

If you do things by the job, you are perpetually driven: the hours are scourges. If you work by the hour, you gently sail on the stream of Time, which is always bearing you on to the haven of Pay, whether you make any effort, or not.

If there was any petting to be done...he chose to do it. Often he would sit looking at me, and then, moved by a delicate affection, come and pull at my coat and sleeve until he could touch my face with his nose, and then go away contented.

Plots are no more exhausted than men are. Every man is a new creation, and combinations are simply endless.

The love of dirt is among the earliest of passions, as it is the latest.

There was never a nation that became great until it came to the knowledge that it had nowhere in the world to go for help.

I am convinced that the majority of people would be generous from selfish motives, if they had the opportunity.