Frozen peas can be shelled very fast with a wringer-type washer. Put a pan on one side of the wringer to catch the peas and the pods go on through. You will think peas will go through the wringer and be mashed the moment the pod hits the wringer, but they will pop out before they go through. A very fast job can be done this way.

I am convinced by a sad experience that it is natural to avoid those to whom we have been too much obliged, and that uncommon generosity causes neglect rather than gratitude.

Letters were first invented for consoling such solitary wretches as myself. Having lost the substantial pleasures of seeing and possessing you, I shall in some measure compensate this loss by the satisfaction I shall find in your writing.

it is not the deed but the intention that makes the crime.

What cannot letters inspire? They have souls; they can speak; they have in them all that force which expresses the transports of the heart.

Riches and power are but gifts of blind fate, whereas goodness is the result of one's own merits.

When my self is not with you, it is nowhere.