What makes life dreary is the want of a motive.

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

Our consciousness rarely registers the beginning of a growth within us any more than without us; there have been many circulation of the sap before we detect the smallest sign of the bud.

There's folks 'ud hold a sieve under the pump and expect to carry away the water.

Ignorance ... is a painless evil; so, I should think, is dirt, considering the merry faces that go along with it.

The commonest man, who has his ounce of sense and feeling, is conscious of the difference between a lovely, delicate woman and a coarse one. Even a dog feels a difference in her presence.

Shall we, because we walk on our hind feet, assume to ourselves only the privilege of imperishability?