What destroys us most effectively is not a malign fate but our own capacity for self-deception and for degrading our own best self.

It is always good to know, if only in passing, charming human beings. It refreshes one like flowers and woods and clear brooks.

Wear a smile and have friends; wear a scowl and have wrinkles.

Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning.

... one's own faults are always a heavy chain to drag through life and one can't help groaning under the weight now and then.

Having once embarked on your marital voyage, it is impossible not to be aware that you make no way and the sea is not within sight; that in fact, you are exploring an enclosed basin.

What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.