Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.

It is not every man who can be exquisitely miserable, any more than exquisitely happy.

My father had declared a predilection for heirs general, that is, males and females indiscriminately.... I, on the other hand, had a zealous partiality for heirs male, however remote.

Friendship, "the wine of life," should, like a well-stocked cellar, be continually renewed.

Writing a book I have found to be like building a house. A man forms a plan, and collects materials.

A page of my journal is like a cake of portable soup. A little may be diffused into a considerable portion.

He had no settled plan of life, nor looked forward at all, but merely lived from day to day. Yet he read a great deal in a desultory manner, without any scheme of study, as chance threw books in his way, and inclination directed him through them.