No matter how hard a man may labor, some woman is always in the background of his mind. She is the one reward of virtue.

It took me some time to learn that although every one secretly cherishes the ambition to be 'put in a book,' no one is ever satisfied with anything save incense, butter, and honey, unrelieved by salt or spice.

there is only one thing we do know and that is that we do not know anything.

It is seldom that the imagination is disappointed in the 'ancestral piles' of England.

No loose fish enters our quiet bay.

The very commonplaces of life are components of its eternal mystery.

the only revenge worth having is success.