... up to this date, I have never been shut up in a separate room, or hedged off with any observances. My study, all the study I have attained to, is the little 2nd drawing room where all the (feminine) life of the house goes on; and I don't think I have ever had two hours undisturbed (except at night, when everybody is in bed) during my whole literary life.

Temptations come, as a general rule, when they are sought.

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.

Next to happiness, perhaps enmity is the most healthful stimulant of the human mind.

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.

there are some people who never learn; indeed, few people learn by experience, so far as I have ever seen.

every generation has a conceit of itself which elevates it, in its own opinion, above that which comes after it.