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

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

All perfection is melancholy.

It is so seldom in this world that things come just when they are wanted.

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.

Against the long years when family bonds make up all that is happiest in life, there must always be reckoned those moments of agitation and revolution, during which the bosom of a family is the most unrestful and disturbing place in existence.

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