There is nothing more effectual in showing us the weakness of any habitual fallacy or assumption than to hear it sympathetically through the ears, as it were, of a skeptic.

Good works may only be beautiful sins, if they are not done in a true spirit.

There is nothing so costly as bargains.

Perhaps, on the whole, embarrassment and perplexity are a kind of natural accompaniment to life and movement; and it is better to be driven out of your senses with thinking which of two things you ought to do than to do nothing whatever, and be utterly uninteresting to all the world.

Even in misery we love to be foremost, to have the bitter in our cup acknowledged as more bitter than that of others.

As for pictures and museums, that don't trouble me. The worst of going abroad is that you've always got to look at things of that sort. To have to do it at home would be beyond a joke.

The middle of life is the testing-ground of character and strength.