Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another

Can any man or woman choose duties? No more than they can choose their birthplace or their father and mother.

There's folks as make bad butter and trusten to the salt t' hide it.

There is a great deal of unmapped country within us which would have to be taken into account in an explanation of our gusts and storms.

Self-confidence is apt to address itself to an imaginary dullness in others; as people who are well off speak in a cajoling tone to the poor.

These fellow-mortals, every one, must be accepted as they are: you can neither straighten their noses, nor brighten their wit, nor rectify their dispositions; and it is these people-amongst whom your life is passed-that it is needful you should tolerate, pity, and love: it is these more or less ugly, stupid, inconsistent people whose movements of goodness you should be able to admire-for whom you should cherish all possible hopes, all possible patience.

It is an uneasy lot at best, to be what we call highly taught and yet not to enjoy: to be present at this great spectacle of life and never to be liberated from a small hungry shivering self.