A thing may be incredible and still be true; sometimes it is incredible because it is true.

Surely a gentle sister is the second best gift to a man; and it is first in point of occurrence; for the wife comes after.

So long as a man-of-war exists, it must ever remain a picture of much that is tyrannical and repelling in human nature.

Will you, or will you not, quit me? I now demanded in a sudden passion, advancing close to him. "I would prefer not to quit you", he replied, gently emphasizing the not.

It is-or seems to be-a wise sort of thing, to realise that all that happens to a man in this life is only by way of joke, especially his misfortunes, if he have them. And it is also worth bearing in mind, that the joke is passed round pretty liberally & impartially, so that not very many are entitled to fancy that they in particular are getting the worst of it.

You cannot spill a drop of American blood without spilling the blood of the whole world.... We are not a nation, so much as a world.

We are only what we are; not what we would be; nor every thing we hope for. We are but a step in a scale, that reaches further above us than below.