It may well be doubted whether human ingenuity can construct an enigma... which human ingenuity may not, by proper application, resolve.

A man's grammar, like Caesar's wife, must not only be pure, but above suspicion of impurity.

Man's real life is happy, chiefly because he is ever expecting that it soon will be so.

In the tale proper--where there is no space for development of character or for great profusion and variety of incident--mere construction is, of course, far more imperatively demanded than in the novel.

the truth is, I am heartily sick of this life & of the nineteenth century in general. (I am convinced that every thing is going wrong.)

I have made no money. I am as poor now as ever I was in my life - except in hope, which is by no means bankable.

To die laughing must be the most glorious of all glorious deaths!