irony is an indispensable ingredient of the critical vision; it is the safest antidote to sentimental decay.

And where was happiness if it sprung not from the soil? Where contentment if it dwelt not near to Nature?

Many of the men who had come to the wilderness to practice religion appeared to have forgotten its true nature.

though pleasure may be purchasable, happiness cannot be bought for a price.

In the past few years, I have made a thrilling discovery ... that until one is over sixty, one can never really learn the secret of living. One can then begin to live, not simply with the intense part of oneself, but with one's entire being.

Given two tempers and the time, the ordinary marriage produces anarchy.

It would appear, from the best examples, that the proper way of beginning a preface to one's work is with a humble apology for having written at all.