It was said of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, that she never puts dots over her I s, to save ink.

This world is a comedy, not Life.

Art is the filigrain of a little mind, and is twisted and involved and curled, but would reach farther if laid out in a straight line.

Our [British] summers are often, though beautiful for verdure, so cold, that they are rather cold winters.

That strange premature genius Chatterton has couched in one line the quintessence of what Voltaire has said in many pages: "Reason, a thorn in Revelation's side.

When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.

Serendipitous discoveries are made by chance, found without looking for them but possible only through a sharp vision and sagacity, ready to see the unexpected and never indulgent with the apparently unexplainable.