And your defect is a propensity to hate everybody." "And yours," he replied with a smile, "is willfully to misunderstand them.

Every impulse of feeling should be guided by reason; and, in my opinion, exertion should always be in proportion to what is required.

A man . . . must have a very good opinion of himself when he asks people to leave their own fireside, and encounter such a day as this, for the sake of coming to see him. He must think himself a most agreeable fellow.

I am not at all in a humour for writing; I must write on till I am.

At my time of life opinions are tolerably fixed. It is not likely that I should now see or hear anything to change them.

There was no being displeased with such an encourager, for his admiration made him discern a likeness before it was possible.

It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy;—it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.