A blessed companion is a book! A book that, fitly chosen, is a life-long friend. A book — the unfailing Damon to his loving Pythias. A book that — at a touch — pours its heart into our own.

Happiness grows at our own firesides, and is not to be picked in strangers' gardens.

Reputations, like beavers and cloaks, shall last some people twice the time of others.

Malice blunts the point of wit.

As for the brandy, "nothing extenuate"; and the water, put nought in in malice.

Etiquette has no regard for moral qualities.

Keep your eyes and ears open, if you desire to get on in the world.