Few save the poor feel for the poor.

There is no existence so content as that whose present is engrossed by employment, and whose future is filled by some strong hope, the truth of which is never proved. Toil and illusion are the only secrets to make life tolerable.

The fearless make their own way.

to the many, witticisms not only require to be explained, like riddles, but are also like new shoes, which people require to wear many times before they get accustomed to them.

youth, balancing itself upon hope, is forever in extremes: its expectations are continually aroused only to be baffled, and disappointment, like a summer shower, is violent in proportion to its brevity.

English people ... never speak, excepting in cases of fire or murder, unless they are introduced.

I do not think that life has a suspense more sickening than that of expecting a letter which does not come.