In spite of his practical ability, some of his experience had petrified into maxims and quotations.

...there's never a garden in all the parish but what there's endless waste in it for want o' somebody as could use everything up. It's what I think to myself sometimes, as there need nobody run short o' victuals if the land was made the most on, and there was never a morsel but what could find it's way to a mouth.

In travelling I shape myself betimes to idleness And take fools' pleasure

Solomon's Proverbs, I think, have omitted to say, that as the sore palate findeth grit, so an uneasy consciousness heareth innuendos.

The world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome, dubious eggs, called possibilities.

One can say everything best over a meal.

When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.