'Tis God gives skill, but not without men's hand: He could not make Antonio Stradivarius's violins without Antonio.

Habit is the beneficent harness of routine which enables silly men to live respectfully and unhappy men to live calmly

Strange, that some of us, with quick alternate vision, see beyond our infatuations, and even while we rave on the heights, behold the wide plain where our persistent self pauses and awaits us.

Ignorant kindness may have the effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty would be an ignorant unkindness.

We are all humiliated by the sudden discovery of a fact which has existed very comfortably and perhaps been staring at us in private while we have been making up our world entirely without it.

Self-consciousness of the manner is the expensive substitute for simplicity.

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