To make a vow is a greater sin than to break one.

Deliberate virtue is never worth much: The virtue of feeling or habit is the thing.

When an acquaintance goes by I often step back from my window, not so much to spare him the effort of acknowledging me as to spare myself the embarrassment of seeing that he has not done so.

One of our forefathers must have read a forbidden book.

Many intelligent people, when about to write . . . , force on their minds a certain notion about style, just as they screw up their faces when they sit for their portraits.

The wisdom of providence is as much revealed in the rarity of genius, as in the circumstance that not everyone is deaf or blind.

To read means to borrow; to create out of one s readings is paying off one's debts.