The troublesome ones in a family are usually either the wits or the idiots.

There are some cases in which the sense of injury breeds not the will to inflict injuries and climb over them as a ladder, but a hatred of all injury.

'Character," says Novalis, in one of his questionable aphorisms - character is destiny'.

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.

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

Among all the many kinds of first love, that which begins in childish companionship is the strongest and most enduring: when passion comes to unite its force to long affection, love is at its spring-tide.

These gems have life in them: their colors speak, say what words fail of.