We say justly that the weak person is flat, for, like all flat substances, he does not stand in the direction of his strength, that is, on his edge, but affords a convenient surface to put upon. He slides all the way through life.... But the brave man is a perfect sphere, which cannot fall on its flat side and is equally strong every way.

What avails it that another loves you, if he does not understand you? Such love is a curse.

Staying in the house breeds a sort of insanity always. Every house is, in this sense, a hospital.

The greatest tragedy in life is to spend your whole life fishing only to discover it was never fish that you were after.

The rarest quality in an epitaph is truth.

Ninety-nine one-hundredths of our lives we are mere hedgers and ditchers, but from time to time we meet with reminders of our destiny.

I wish to learn what life has to teach, and not, when I come to die, discover that I have not truly lived.