... we all know the wag's definition of a philanthropist: a man whose charity increases directly as the square of the distance.

That golden sky, which was the doubly blessed symbol of advancing day and of approaching rest.

People who live at a distance are naturally less faulty than those immediately under our own eyes.

My books don't seem to belong to me after I have once written them; and I find myself delivering opinions about them as if I had nothing to do with them.

The best travel is that which one can take by one's own fireside. In memory or imagination.

A difference of taste in jokes is a great strain on the affections.

Many an inherited sorrow that has marred a life has been breathed into no human ear.