Alas! the culture of an Irishman is an enterprise to be undertaken with a sort of moral bog hoe.

The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.

I learned to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of nature, rather than a member of society.

The necessity of labor and conversation with many men and things to the scholar is rarely well remembered.

Certainly, we do not need to be soothed and entertained always like children. He who resorts to the easy novel, because he is languid, does no better than if he took a nap.

If common sense had been consulted, how many marriages would never have taken place; if uncommon or divine sense, how few marriages such as we witness would ever have taken place!

I think that no experience which I have today comes up to, or is comparable with, the experiences of my boyhood.