The more one has seen of the good, the more one asks for the better.

No man, with a man's heart in him gets far on his way without some bitter, soul-searching disappointment. Happy is he who is brave enough to push on to another stage of the journey.

I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood.

Friendship should be a private pleasure, not a public boast. I loathe those braggarts who are forever trying to invest themselves with importance by calling important people by their first names in or out of print. Such first-naming for effect makes me cringe.

Most people spend most of their days doing what they do not want to do in order to earn the right, at times, to do what they may desire.

The purpose of writing is to hold a mirror to nature, but too much today is written from small mirrors in vanity cases.

A good conversationalist is not one who remembers what was said, but says what someone wants to remember.