The rich ate and drank freely, accepting gout and apoplexy as things that ran mysteriously in respectable families.

When a workman knows the use of his tools, he can make a door as well as a window.

There are natures in which, if they love us, we are conscious of having a sort of baptism and consecration.

If I got places, sir, it was because I made myself fit for 'em. If you want to slip into a round hole, you must first make a ball of yourself; that's where it is.

We mortals, men and women, devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinnertime.

You youngsters nowadays think you're to begin with living well and working easy; you've no notion of running afoot before you get on horseback.

I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music.