The nearest we can come to) perfect happiness is to cheat ourselves with the belief that we have got it.

Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist: it reduces him to his fighting weight.

I called my cat William because no shorter name fits the dignity of his character. Poor old man, he has fits now, so I call him Fitz-William.

The truly innocent are those who not only are guiltless themselves but who think others are.

Honesty is the rarest wealth anyone can possess.

If men were stubborn just in proportion as they were right, stubbornness would take her seat among the virtues; but men are generally stubborn just in proportion as they are ignorant and wrong.

There are two things in life for which we are never truly prepared: twins.